Biggest Rat
Where Can You Find The World's Biggest Rat?
In searching the records for the world's biggest rat, one has to be a little careful about definitions. When we think if a rat, we think of something a little less than a foot long that lives under the house, or a somewhat larger Norwegian rat, the kind you find on ships and in city sewer systems, that can grow to 2 feet in length.
When A Rat Is Not A Rat - You'll hear claims of rats weighing 100 pounds or more. If you hear about a "rat" of that size, chances are it's a capybara, a rodent that can weigh upwards to 140 pounds. Somewhere along the way, there can be some confusion about whether one is talking about a true rat, which is a rodent, or a rodent, which is not necessarily a rat.
Instead of weighing in at 140 pounds, what might be considered to be a very large rat, such as the Cloud rat, a native of the Philippines, would weigh closer to 4 1/2 pounds, admittedly a big rat by normal standards. The largest Norway rat ever caught, by comparison, weighed 2.4 pounds.
World’s Largest? - The largest species of rats, among which you would probably find the world's biggest rat, are the African giant pouched rat, a rat somewhat larger than the largest Norwegian rat, weighing up to a little over 3 pounds and attaining a length of an inch or so shy of 2 feet.
Big Chinese Rats - However there have been some specimens caught, believed to be true rats, that seem to put the African giant pouch rat to shame. One is what appears to be a Chinese bamboo rat, which when photographed, appeared to be the size of an average sized cat, weighing about 6 pounds. The photograph appeared to identify the species, although most Chinese bamboo rats grow no longer than about 10 inches in length. Faked photograph? Maybe not, the Sumatra bamboo rat, found in both Indonesia and southern China, can grow to weigh 8 pounds and have a 30 inch body length.
Another rat, recently discovered in Papua New Guinea, also fits into the biggest rat category, measuring 32 inches from tip to tail. Since only a few of these rats have been trapped for measurement, how big they really can grow remains an unknown.
And Then There Are Pet Rats - One won't find anything resembling the world's biggest rat in a pet store, assuming you'd want one in your home. Rats of course make excellent pets, but those you would tend to bring home for that purpose would be a little under a foot in length when fully grown, with a tail extending another 8 or 9 inches. A tame pet rat will usually be quite friendly and easy to handle. They are also extremely curious and intelligent, something that probably applies to the giant rats or world's biggest rat as well. Pet rats are quite social, towards humans and towards each other, so one can keep several. Be careful about keeping a male and female together however. The female goes into heat about every 5 days. The same no doubt applies to giant rats in the wild.
A New Candidate - Despite the size of the rat captured in China and the size of the Sumatra bamboo rat species, it is beginning to look like the rat discovered in Papua New Guinea, which has thick long fur and is one of the species called giant woolly rats, has a shot at eventually being classified as the world's biggest rat. Whether this giant rat will ever find its way into pet stores is doubtful, as it is truly an exotic species. It is said however to has no fear of humans, but whether this indicates it can be tamed has at the present time not been determined.