Thread: 'Giant 4-foot-long monster rat' found in London could be African

The creature is believed to be a cane rat, with experts believing the rodents could be breeding in London’s sewers.



Pest controllers had their work cut out when a 'monster rat' was found in a playground in London.
The creature, believed to be a giant rat, was said to be bigger than a cat or a Jack Russell.
Gas engineer Tony Smith, 46, saw the rodent, which he claimed was up to 4 feet long, while working at a block of flats in London.
The large rodent, which reportedly weighed about 25lbs, was seen in a bush next to a popular children's playground.
The average body length of an adult rat is 9 to 11 inches, with a tail of 7 to 9 inches.
Pest-control experts at Rentokil believe the rodents could be breeding below the city streets.

A spokesperson explained the average brown rat in the UK is just one foot in length, compared to the two feet rodent discovered in Hackney.
A spokesperson for the pest control company said: "As a comparison the body of your average brown rat is up to 40cm in length with a tail shorter than the head and body, and about 350g - 500g in weight.
"They prefer ground living and burrowing but sometime have been know to climb. In urban areas there is often ready access to food, water and shelter.
"The brown rat is the only species to occur in sewers in the UK."
Some have claimed the rat is not, in fact, giant but there is a perspective trick involved.
Shop owners at Ridley Road market, which has over 180 stalls selling African, Asian and Caribbean food, were keen to condemn the selling of grasscutter rats, but some said they had heard rumours of rare African cuts being sold illegally.

Nazam Ali, who has run a fruit and vegetable stall at Ridley Road Market for 15 years, says he is aware of people selling bush meat like monkey at the market.
Mr Ali, 44, said: "I think people keep it under cover. There's a demand for it, things like bush meat.
"Maybe grasscutter rats are being sold, I don't know.
"People want to eat what they had back home and it's harder to get hold of here in Britain."
The creature was found dead near to an area where children play, which backed onto a railway track near Hackney Downs, north London on Thursday.
Mr Smith asked his electrician friend James Green to hold the rat while he took a picture.
His friends have reacted to the image with a mixture of 'glee and disgust'.
Mr Smith said: "This is the largest rat I've ever seen in my entire life.
"I've got a cat and a Jack Russell and it was bigger than both of those put together.
"I'd say it was about four foot.
"We were going to stick it in the bin, but before we did we thought we had better take a picture or people won't believe it's real."

'Giant 4-foot-long monster rat' found in children's playground in London could be African species - Telegraph

probably some kids pet that ran off

can a man hold 25 pounds on a stick effortlessly like that ?

This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

_ T.S. Eliot, The Hollow Men

Originally Posted by blue

probably some kids pet that ran off

can a man hold 25 pounds on a stick effortlessly like that ?

You reckon it's a fake?

It's the stuff of nightmares... When i lived in Africa these where quite common.
The dogs killed them for fun

Good one, probably photo shopped.

I have seen these beastly big rats in real life also, not just in Africa but Spain.
So why not London? i reckon it's real ..

its not photoshop ,just the perspective making it look bigger
its big but not 4 foot or 25 pounds



Is monster rat a hoax? Rodent 'size of a child' could be camera trick or different animal - Mirror Online

Originally Posted by blue

probably some kids pet that ran off

can a man hold 25 pounds on a stick effortlessly like that ?

10 odd kilos? Yeah, not hard for someone of average strength to hold that up

Well, they're including the tail, of course...

It could feed a whole isaan village that one, yes.

Originally Posted by Chittychangchang

You reckon it's a fake?

the photo is a perspective shot - it is not the 4 foot rat which

Gas engineer Tony Smith, 46

after a night on polish beer

saw the rodent

which he claimed was up to 4 feet long

which reportedly weighed about 25lbs

and

was seen in a bush

click bait , so more advertisements can be looked at

Originally Posted by khmen

10 odd kilos? Yeah, not hard for someone of average strength to hold that up

10 kgs away from your side - I suggest you go and try and report back

The whole country could be overrun by next week.

How to fake a giant rat (and why you shouldn't trust pictures on the internet) | Media | The Guardian

A sort of pictorial equivalent of a piwanoi post, then.

Originally Posted by cyrille

A sort of pictorial equivalent of a piwanoi post, then.

Or just about any of ENT or Albert's in the 9/11 thread, pictorial or not.

Originally Posted by cyrille

A sort of pictorial equivalent of a piwanoi post, then.

Quite the opposite. He posts with a total lack of perspective.

It looks like a Coypu to me. They are wild in Norfolk.

Bloody Africans, coming here and taking our, er, er, rubbish.

Get the barbie fired up.

Originally Posted by blue

its not photoshop ,just the perspective making it look bigger
its big but not 4 foot or 25 pounds



Is monster rat a hoax? Rodent 'size of a child' could be camera trick or different animal - Mirror Online

Old fishing trick to hold your catch well in front of you to make it appear much bigger than it is. I did it all the time when fishing in Mexico and Canada. Sometimes it was not needed since the fish were actually very big.

Originally Posted by Warwick

It looks like a Coypu to me. They are wild in Norfolk.

They was Warwick , however they got wiped out decades ago , I remember they used to show them in travelling fairgrounds describing them as Giant sewer Rats , the info about the Coypu's demise is here http://vege1.kan.ynu.ac.jp/isp/pdf/baker.pdf

I saw a rat that big run through a hotel restaurant dining floor in Chang Mai, it wasn't even afraid, it wandered around casually until a Farang woman screamed.

^
That was a cat disguised as a mouse.

Visited a museum in White Horse in the Yukon...There was a statue of a prehistoric beaver which was the size of a black bear...Massive fooking rodent...