Monday, September 7

AWWWWWW!!!!!

Sadly I can't embed so here's the link to the movie

A new species of giant rat has been discovered deep in the jungle of Papua New Guinea.

The rat, which has no fear of humans, measures 82cm long, placing it among the largest species of rat known anywhere in the world.

The creature, which has not yet been formally described, was discovered by an expedition team filming the BBC programme Lost Land of the Volcano.

As a former rat-owner I can't tell you how cute that is. You have to go see it yourself.
It really is a giant version of the grey rat. There's another rat in borneo that's 70 cm but looks distinctly different from the rgeular one we know and love and brought us the plague.
Movements, reactions e.t.c. are identical to that of the tamed rats I used to own and (still) love.

4 comments:

  1. Yeah, I saw it on the news last night. It looked cute indeed. But I couldn't stop wandering why those people were there? Do we really need to step over the last bits of unspoiled nature for another daft TV show?

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  2. Hey, if it involves finding 82 cm of utter cuteness.... :-)

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  3. Takes me back to my punk days, had a friend who had a really docile pet rate, she could take it to clubs, often did and it would sit happily on her shoulder surveying the room, that one on the other hand would probably not rest comfortably on anyones shoulders, more of a 'lap rat', cute :)

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  4. Sounds like a male rat. You can take those anywhere. As lng as they're comfortable they won't budge. Apparently some male traits are universal :-)
    Females are way more curious, but one of the most endearing traits is when they accidentally drop on the floor, they'll not run away but rush you and climb up your leg. So sweet.

    *sigh* The major downside to rats is they break your heart every two years when they develop cancer and need to be put down. breeders are reintroducing wild rat bloodstrains now to combat that, but this does make them less docile. I could seriously see myself having a rat of this size as a pet if it lives for 10-15 years as the domestic wild rat can.

    But really, rats should never be kept alone, they are way too social for that. I loved it when we had a total of 7 rats from 3 nests in one cage with all the social dynamics that went on.

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