The creepy king of rats

In Science Daily Online today we want to tell you about a phenomenon at least creepy .It's something that for a long time was thought to be nothing more than a legend, but now we know that it occurs in the animal world naturally, but it does not stop horrifying us.It is " the king of rats ".

The Legend of Rattenkonig, the king of the rats

The legend of the rat king or rattenkonig arises in Germany and is documented for the first time in the XVI century. It was believed that it was a being formed by several rats that formed a new living being with multiple heads and on which the dominant individual, the king , was installed.

The creepy king of rats

He got food from his subjects and everything he asked for.The Europeans of the time considered the vision of one of these phenomena as a warning of future misfortunes.

The truth behind the legends

For a long time it was believed that after this legend there was nothing true and that the specimens that were exhibited were gross manipulations .Currently it is known that this phenomenon really occurs and the reasons why it surely occurs have been studied.As a skein of wool or simply long hair, the tails of the rats would become entangled forming knots impossible to undo .The little space in which many individuals coexist, dirt, excrement and blood from small wounds, make their appendages come together hopelessly.The rats are still alive but form a new and horrifying being.It is believed that these clusters can consist of between 7 and 50 copies en .

Why this phenomenon does not happen today

Researchers have observed that the king of rats ceases to be mentioned in European folklore around the 18th century and that this happened at the same time that the gray rat was gradually replacing the black rat .The black rat has the much longer tail and therefore more likely to get entangled.

The creepy king of rats

Even so, there are two recent cases, one in Holland in 1963 and another in Estonia in 2005 .In the first one a farmer found a king of rats, made up of seven individuals , after a lot of spikes.In the second other farmer, after hearing a kind of strange shrieks, he discovered in his shed, in the town of Saru, in Estonia, a king of the rats.When I find him, they tried to dig the frozen ground and of 16 individuals 9 remained alive; until the farmer, horrified, I'm done with them.

The creepy king of rats

Several specimens are preserved in museums across Europe, for example, in the Mauritiaum of Altenburg (Thuringia, Germany) there is a group of 32 elements that was found in 1828 at a miller's house, specifically in his chimney.Another known king of rats is that of Nantes , in the museum of this city one of 9 heads.

As you can see there are legends that have a real background and this is one of them.If you want to know more curious legends, you may be interested in the legend of the infernal dog of the First World War.

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