King of rats
A king of rats is a regrouping of Rat S whose tails are interlaced the ones with the others, often taken in a gangue made up of straw, excrements and hairs. It is a rare phenomenon, whose reality is disputed.
This expression of German origin ( Rattenkönig ) would come from a legend according to which the king of the rats would have used this assembly like platform.
A specimen going back to 1828 is composed of 32 rats, the smallest king includes/understands only two rats. Except a case announced to Java, the kings of rats are always trained by black rats ( Rattus rattus ).
The phenomenon was presented in a monograph in 1864 by the German zoologists Kurt Becker and Heinrich Kemper.
Origin
Holding of mystification
Many people estimate that it is about a Mystification, that the kings of the rats were built by people who voluntarily tied the tails of the rodents together.
Holding of a natural origin
They advance several assumptions to explain this Phénomène. Most credible is undoubtedly the exiguity of certain nests which would push the little rats to get mixed up their tails. It neither was however never proven nor even studied scientifically.Attempt at conclusion
Could it be a question of a completely exceptional Phénomène (secular even thousand-year-old) which would have been transmitted orally from generation to generation. Phenomenon that some wanted to reproduce to confirm a fact become legendary.
Food
The members of a king of rats cannot move, they would be thus dependant on their congeneric for their food.
Specimens
Many known cases proved to be trickeries, one counts according to the sources from 35 to 50 cases authenticated in the World, the majority in Germany| Random links: | Chronic Glaucome | Canton of Arzano | Balleray | Revolving aerofoil | Jane_Tranter |