In search of the giant rat

Are plagues of huge rats really overrunning the UK? There was only one way to find out…

Emine Saner
guardian.co.uk,
Sunday 19 September 2010 20.30 BST

Mac Hussain disappears into the undergrowth. "Mind out, there's broken glass there," comes his voice from the other side of some brambles. Between short rain breaks in the sodden sky, we are on the hunt for giant rats. There are thought to be at least four here – well that's what Brandon Goddard told the Sun recently, after it ran a picture of him holding a giant rat he claimed to have shot on this Bradford estate. "The first went right past but we got the second one. Then three more got away," Goddard, who lives in nearby Wakefield, told the paper. "This one I shot was absolutely terrifying. I was shaking. Goodness knows where the others went."

Thankfully, there is no sign of them now – but if you heard that a Sun reporter and a man with an air rifle were on your tail, would you hang around? We poke about in the undergrowth on a bit of wasteland. "Ideal place for rats, this," says Hussain. He has been a pest controller for 12 years. "There has been so much rain over the last few weeks that it will have had an effect, physically pushing the rats out of the sewer system."

Last month, Yorkshire Water warned of just such an increase in the number of rats in Bradford. The company, which baits around 100,000 of its manholes, reported a rise in "takes" (poison disappearing from bait boxes). A spokes-man put this down to households and food businesses pouring cooking oil down the drains, where it congeals in the sewers and the rats feed on it.

"I think the numbers are increasing," says Hussain. "I'm certainly getting more calls." He thinks several factors are at work: "Bin collections are getting less regular, there are more takeaways opening, and people throw so much food away now. The [rats'] size does seem to be getting bigger compared to when I started out."

But he is not convinced that so-called giant rats exist. "If you get a well-fed rat, it can be 15 inches – plus the tail can be seven or eight inches. And people always think a rat is bigger than it is. I get a panicky call from someone saying they've seen a huge rat, and it turns out to be a mouse." The biggest rat Hussain has ever caught was 14 inches (not including the tail). "If you stretched it out, you could probably get it to two feet."

Every year there are stories of towns and villages that are supposedly "rat infested". This summer it was Haltwhistle in Northumberland. Last year, it was Flamborough in Yorkshire and two unidentified Berkshire towns that were becoming "overrun". A woman, who asks not to be named, stops to watch. "I think it's a load of rubbish," she says. "I've been here four years and never seen a giant rat. It's wrong to say we're being invaded."

There was some speculation that the giant rat Goddard claimed to have shot was actually a coypu, a South American rodent sometimes kept as a pet. But we can't find any coypus either. Later, when I consult Stephen Battersby, a rat expert and president of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, he inclines towards the coypu suggestion. But does he think rat numbers are increasing? "The indicators appear to be that they are, but there is also a natural population cycle, so it's hard to know."

What is certain is that rats have a serious image problem. Personally, I quite like them, but for most people – fed by horror-film imagery and the fact that rats are always blamed for the plague (it was actually the fleas they carried that were responsible) – they are the stuff of nightmares; think of the rats in Room 101 trying to gnaw away at Winston Smith in Orwell's 1984. Mice, though still considered vermin, are at least seen as fairly cute.

Putting a figure on the number of rats in the UK is difficult. It is often claimed there is one rat for every person, meaning there are more than 60 million. "That's a myth," says Battersby, explaining that this came from an estimate of the rat population just after the first world war, when there were fewer people and farming practices included building hay ricks where rats thrived. "Life has changed a great deal since then. I would say there could be in the order of 20 million. But if you have rats in and around your home, it doesn't matter what the number is in the rest of the country, it's those you have to worry about."

Rats can get in "through a gap as small as half an inch," says Battersby. "They can flatten themselves. They're also extremely clever, and can swim and jump." Hussain says they also burrow under foundations. "I've seen holes chewed in walls, concrete gnawed through. The damage they do is unbelievable. People don't want to admit they have a rat problem – it sounds as if they are dirty – but rats will come in if there's access and there's food lying around. If you're feeding the birds, that's a really good source of food. So is home composting."

Rats are not great climbers, but they can shimmy their way up a house in the gap between drainpipe and wall, then get into the roof. "A common route is through ruptured drains or poorly covered drains," says Hussain. My friend, Helen, came home from work one day and heard a splashing noise coming from her downstairs loo – there, treading water in the toilet bowl, was a wet rat. She left London shortly afterwards. "I've seen plastic pipes on the back of a toilet chewed through," Hussain confirms.

Neither the black rat, which is all but extinct now, nor the brown rat are native to the UK. It is believed the black rat came to this island with the Romans, and the brown rat in the 17th century as trade and shipping grew. Rats have travelled all over the world as stowaways on boats, colonising their destination. And, of course, they carry health risks to humans. "Leptospirosis [Weil's disease] is relatively rare," says Battersby. "But if you're taking part in water sports or go fishing, make sure you don't have any open cuts. If you're working in the sewers, the same. But for the general public, it's not really the issue."

More problematic, he says, are the parasites that rats often carry. These include cryptosporidium, which causes diarrhoea, Toxoplasma gondii, which can be fatal to unborn children, "and a lot of worm infections, which can cause stomach problems. There is certainly an association between rat allergen and asthma. Rats excrete salmonella as well, and potentially E coli."

Richard Moseley, from the British Pest Control Association, says rodents are also to blame for some house fires, "because they chew through electric cables". Rats that chew through cables on the rail network cause obvious problems, and getting a rat trapped in a piece of machinery in a factory means production can be stopped for days. "That's a lot of manufacturing you've lost."

Now pest control experts warn that we could be on the brink of an explosion in the numbers of rats as local councils, strapped by budget cuts, put vermin control low down their list of priorities. An even bigger threat, says Moseley, are proposed EU changes to the use of rodenticide. "There are going to be some restrictions, but we're not sure what those are going to be yet."

There are also suggestions that rats are becoming resistant to rodenticides. Robert Smith, a retired professor, is working on a survey of rats from around six areas of the UK that have become resistant to anticoagulant, the main rodenticide used by pest controllers. "People have been trying to deal with rats for centuries," Smith says. "They used to use toxic plants to poison them, but rats evolved behaviour to counteract that. They developed 'taste aversion'. They are neophobic – they have a fear of anything 'new' – so with a new food, they won't gorge themselves on it, they will just nibble, then go away and see if it harms them. Rodents can't vomit; once they've swallowed something they can't get rid of it, so they are very careful. If something makes them feel ill, the memory of that taste stays with them for their lifetime." What's more, he says, rats can communicate this information to other rats, probably through scent on their breath. "That makes it difficult to kill a rat with anything that makes them feel ill quickly."

This is where anticoagulant rodenticide comes in – preventing blood clotting so a rodent, squeezing through tiny gaps and picking up small injuries, effectively bleeds to death internally. More importantly, rodenticide are slow-acting, so the rat never learns to associate the bait with what is killing them. They were introduced around 1950 and, by 1958, scientists found the first record of resistance. "In the 70s, chemists devised new versions of the anti- coagulant that overcame resistance so it looked like problem solved." It wasn't though. By the early 90s, rats in southern England were displaying signs of resistance. "There are now parts of Berkshire and Hampshire where it seems it's not possible to control the rats, not with chemicals that are legal to use."

How long will it be before the entire rat population is resistant? "It really depends on how extensive resistance is, and how quickly it spreads – we just don't know at the moment," admits Smith, who is aiming to have all the samples in by the end of April. If all rats became resistant to anticoagulants, he says, "I guess we would be back to where we were during the 40s. There would be significant amounts of contamination of food – we would have to get used to rat droppings and hairs in food. Then there are the diseases that can be spread to other animals, including livestock and people." And if rats are getting bigger, he says, it could be that they have genetic resistance, "which means they live longer – rats keep growing".

Hussain and I drive to an area of Bradford to which he has been called out before. Mohammed, who runs a taxi company at the end of a residential street, says he has a problem with rats. "There's one we see that's the size of a small cat, but it always gets away. We put those glue traps down." Mohammed says it was caught but managed to escape, leaving hair stuck to a pad like someone freeing themselves of their trousers.

He takes us to a room at the back of his office and the first thing you notice are all the holes in the ceiling. "They go in the ceiling to die and it really stinks." He made the holes in the plasterboard to cut them out – it looks like the work of someone driven demented by rats. "I think they came from the restaurant next door, until it closed down. I looked in the window once and there were five or six rats in there. They're not scared."

Back in the car, Hussain explains how he rids a house of rats. He uses boxes baited with anticoagulant; traps don't tend to work. "You're talking about an intelligent animal – if something is killing its friends, it will stay away," he says. After a week or so, he returns to look for the bodies and remove them for incineration.

I'm starting to feel a bit sorry for rats. I had one - his name was Geronimo – when I was a child, so I know they are intelligent, affectionate animals. And if rats are on the increase, it is surely our fault. We tempt them into our homes and workplaces with the shameful amount of food we throw away. "We don't have an active rat population without human activity," says Battersby. "If people throw food litter around, or don't store their refuse correctly, don't be surprised if you get rats. The way rats behave are usually a reflection of the way we behave."

As the sky darkens again, we are forced to give up the search for giant rats. I've been trying to work out if Hussain actually likes rats, or feels a bit sorry for them, but he won't bite. Eventually, as we drive to look at a bait box outside a fried-chicken restaurant, he admits to a grudging respect. "They are a formidable adversary," he says.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/19/in-search-of-giant-rat

Monster Rat Shot Dead On Housing Estate

7:05pm UK, Thursday August 19, 2010
David Williams, Sky News Online

Wildlife experts have said reports of a colony of giant rats need to be investigated after a huge rodent was shot dead on a West Yorkshire housing estate.

The culled super rat measured 30in (2.5ft) - making it as big as a bulldog - and twice the size of a normal rat.

Experts believe it could be a descendent of the coypu species, a large South American rodent not seen in Britain for two decades.

Brandon Goddard, 31, who shot the rat, said voluminous vermin have been invading homes on the Ravenscliffe estate in Bradford.

He saw four others of the same size as he fired on the group with an air rifle.

Mr Goddard told The Sun: "They were more like Ratzillas than rats.

"I got out of there as fast as I could. Who knows how many there will be if they've been breeding?"

Brandon, a manager at a cleaning firm, said: "The first went right past, but we got the second one. Then three more got away.

"I've seen thousands of rats during the course of my work and go shooting a couple of times a week. But I've never seen any as big as this.

"The one I shot was absolutely terrifying. I was shaking. Goodness knows where the others went. I'm glad I don't live there."

People living on the Ravenscliffe estate said large rats often invade their homes and council officials have been called out to eradicate the problem.

See video at: http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Strange-News/Rat-Giant-Rodent-Shot-Dead-On-Bradford-Estate-Creature-Could-Be-Descendent-Of-Coypu-Species/Article/201008315696471

Two 'giant rats' found in East Midlands factory

20 August 2010

Two 2ft long rats were caught in a factory in the East Midlands, Rentokil has confirmed.

The pest control agency said the animals were caught within the last four weeks and were double the normal size of a brown rat.

It said access to a plentiful supply of food had allowed the rats to grow to an abnormally large size.

The news emerged following reports in the Sun newspaper that a 30in (76cm) rodent was killed on a Bradford estate.

Rentokil spokesman Malcolm Padley said: "They were both around 2ft and it's fair to say our technicians were very surprised at the size.

"It goes to show that where there's a food source, these rodents will grow big".

There had been suggestions that the animals could be coypu, a plant-eating semi-aquatic rodent originally native to South America.

However, chief executive of the Mammal Society, Marina Pacheco, confirmed this was not the case.

She said the rodents did not have the distinctive orange teeth seen in the species.

A nationwide cull of coypu is thought to have wiped the animals from the wild 20 years ago.

It is illegal to own one unless it is for exhibition or scientific research, in which case it must be licensed.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11037920
(Submitted by Liz R)

Invasion of the giant rats

By ALASTAIR TAYLOR
19 August 2010

HORRIFIED neighbours told yesterday how their homes are being invaded by giant rats - including a 30-INCH LONG monster that was shot dead.

The rodents, twice the size of common types, are plaguing an estate in Bradford, West Yorks, often appearing in kitchens and lounges.

It is feared some could be "super rats" from South America.

Pictured above is a monster 2½ft rat killed on the estate.

But the shaken man who shot it in the head - 31-year-old Brandon Goddard - yesterday revealed FOUR others of the same size scuttled away to safety.

And he said: "They were more like Ratzillas than rats.

"I got out of there as fast as I could. Who knows how many there will be if they've been breeding?"

The shot rat, feared to be from a species native to South America, is TWICE as big as common British types and the largest seen here.

The residents of Ravenscliffe estate in Bradford, West Yorks, are used to seeing massive rodents that sometimes appear in their kitchens and lounges.

Even so, the new colony shocked them. Shown a picture of the dead creature, mum-of-five Rebecca Holmes, 38, gasped: "Oh my God! I've seen them as big as cats but never that big."
Brandon toted an air rifle as he went "ratting" with pals on the edge of the estate - which they had heard was rife with rodents.

The group heard "rustling and scrabbling" before the five huge rats shot out from behind a wall. Brandon, a manager at a cleaning firm, said: "The first went right past but we got the second one. Then three more got away.

"I've seen thousands of rats during the course of my work and go shooting a couple of times a week. But I've never seen any as big as this. The one I shot was absolutely terrifying. I was shaking. Goodness knows where the others went. I'm glad I don't live there."

After taking the photo, the ratters dumped the shot rodent in undergrowth. It is thought it was eaten by a fox.

The estate has long had a monster rat problem. Rebecca told how her cat Marie cornered one in her lounge. But it stood and fought as it was just as big as the moggy.

A neighbour clobbered it with a baseball bat.

And he and Marie took five dead rats to the local council's offices, tipping them over a desk to demand action.

Rebecca said: "They came quickly, blocked holes and put down poison. But people still see them outside regularly."

Neighbour Julie Briggs, 28, told how she and partner Andrew Denton, 24, hear rats fighting and squealing in the walls of their rented semi, which stands opposite open countryside.

Mum-of-six Julie said: "I find droppings on the cooker when they get into the house. I've seen them in the lounge as we watch TV.

"At night you can hear them chasing each other in the loft. They sound like drag racing cars as they screech across the rafters."

Last night experts called the shot rat "extraordinary" and said the colony was worth investigating.

Laura Drake, of the Mammal Society, speculated it could be a coypu - a South American rodent often referred to as a "giant rat".

Coypus were thought to have been eradicated in Britain in a cull 20 years ago. But Laura said it was "not impossible" there had been survivors.

Yorkshire Rat Club president Colin Arundel said rodents, like humans, could simply be getting bigger as food becomes more and more available.

The RSPCA said: "The most likely answer is the shot rat was from a non-indigenous species that was in captivity and got out."

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3102460/Invasion-of-the-giant-rats-in-Bradford.html
(Submitted by Paul Mead)

Giant herring found in Sweden

Posted Wed May 12, 2010 12:33pm AEST

A giant herring measuring 3.5 metres has been discovered off Sweden's western coast - the first such fish found in the Scandinavian country in more than 130 years, a maritime museum says.

The regalecus glesne, known as the king of herrings or giant oarfish, was found dead in the small fishing village of Bovallstrand on Sweden's west coast, about 90 kilometres from the Norwegian border.

Kurt Ove Eriksson, the passer-by who found the specimen, said he saw something floating down by the water.

"At first we thought it was a big piece of plastic. But then we saw an eye," he said.

"I went down to check and saw that it was this extremely strange fish."

The House of the Sea museum in Lysekil, where the fish was taken, says the rarely seen regalecus can grow up to 12 metres.

"The last time we saw a king of herrings in Sweden was in 1879," the museum said.

"We don't know much about the species... but believe it lives in deep waters, at least one kilometre deep, and many believe it's at the origin of the sea serpent myth."

The dead fish, which was frozen at the museum, had a deep cut through its body and was missing its beautiful, typical back fin, the museum said, adding the fish might be added to an exhibit on sea monsters planned later this year.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/05/12/2897292.htm

Found Alive: The Loch Ness Monster of the Northwest Prairie. Alas, It Disappoints (Idaho scientists find fabled "giant" worm)

By JIM ROBBINS
Published: April 27, 2010

HELENA, Mont.— Once feared extinct, the giant Palouse earthworm, reputed to grow up to three feet long and smell like lilies, has been found alive.

It turns out though, experts say, the worm is not a giant, nor does it have a lilylike scent.

Researchers thought the worm, translucent with the pink head and last seen in the 1980s, might be extinct because its habitat, the Palouse prairie region of Idaho and Washington, is almost gone. On March 27, however, Karl Umiker, a University of Idaho research support scientist, working with Shan Xu, a graduate student from Chengdu, China, discovered two giant Palouse earthworms, a juvenile and an adult, on a small patch of native prairie near Moscow, Idaho.

As it turns out, the worms are bigger than night crawlers but not giant. The two specimens, the adult of which had to be killed and dissected to determine whether it was indeed a giant Palouse earthworm, were about seven inches long when they came from the ground.

“But when we stretched it out and relaxed it, the adult earthworm got bigger,” said Jodi Johnson-Maynard an associate professor of soil and water management and Mr. Umiker’s supervisor. “It’s between 9 and 10 inches.”

That is a far cry from earlier claims of three-foot worms. “We tried to track that story down,” Dr. Johnson-Maynard said, and discovered that many years ago there was one giant specimen. “Apparently some boy was swinging it in the air like a rope, and it stretched.”

Giant earthworms do exist in Africa and Australia, she said, and so it was thought that a North American version was possible.

And the fragrance of lilies? “That I have never noted,” Dr. Johnson-Maynard said. She did not know the origin of that claim.

Still, Dr. Johnson-Maynard said that finding the worms was a scientific coup. “Most people thought it was extinct, or that it never even existed,” she said, “like the Loch Ness monster.”

The worms are transparent, and their organs and food can be discerned through their skin. The species was first described in 1897.

The last live worms were found in the 1980s. Worms were found by researchers in 2005 and 2007, but they were killed during recovery. There were numerous sightings in the 19th century before most of the native prairie was plowed up for wheat. Environmentalists have petitioned the federal government to list the worm as endangered.

Dr. Johnson-Maynard was disappointed that the adult had to be killed to be identified, but inspecting digestive organs is the only way to tell for sure. Now, however, she said, DNA from the sacrificial worm should enable less drastic measures.

Dr. Johnson-Maynard suspects that there are more giant Palouse earthworms, and that they are considered rare in part because they are so hard to find. While most worms live in the top foot of soil, she said, “the giant Palouse can burrow much deeper, about 15 feet.” They can also sense disturbance and flee to deeper ground when researchers are digging.

The researchers used an electroshock device to find the worms. The location technique, called the octet method, involves sticking eight electrodes into the ground in a one-foot-circle and sending electricity through them. It is believed to be what brought the worms to the surface.

The scientific name for the worm is Driloleirus americanus, a separate genus and species than other worms. The creature is different from other worms in a couple of ways. It has more nephidia, a kidney-like organ that allows it to live in dryer conditions than other worms. And their clitellum, a smooth band that all worms have, is in a different location.

The captured juvenile is resting comfortably, Dr. Johnson-Maynard said, adding, “We have it in a cooler in soil with ice packs.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/28/science/earth/28earthworm.html?ref=us
(Submitted by Brian Chapman)

See also: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2010/04/27/1169673/apnewsbreak-idaho-scientists-find.html#ixzz0mUBrfYXv
And: http://news.ca.msn.com/world/cbc-article.aspx?cp-documentid=24061208
(Submitted by G. A. Christian Bilou)