How Large Can a Rat Get?

[lensman57]

Been looking over the HW 100 Owners page on FB and this chap posted photos of his latest rat shoot. Amongst a dozen or so normal size rats, about 9"~10" there was one the size of a fully grown rabbit and even thicker than that. I thought he was joking and it was a leg pull but no it is a damned rat. He said that he had shot this size rat before . Have you guys ever shot or come across something so large?

A.G

[SRV1]

Mmmm...and there's me thinking they couldn't get bigger than Tony Blair.....

[lensman57]

Mmmm...and there's me thinking they couldn't get bigger than Tony Blair.....

A.G

[FPoole]

We have a few nutria here and they do get up to around a yard long. They look very much like a rat. I had a really good laugh at a roofing helper because of one of them. He was looking in the back yard where we were looking at a chimney leak and there were 2 of these things. Both were pretty much full size and my helper was ready to vacate the job site until I explained that they weren't really rats.

[Shootfish]

Ah, sweet memories......Falkland Islands 82, overheard a message saying there was a rat in one of the tents; went along with a spade to help others find and kill it. Much amusement, had I even seen an FI rat? Well no I hadn't.....until a few nights later, yomping under blackout conditions, came upon a low wall; on top of the wall is a RAT - I've seen smaller dogs! Mucho respect from then on, certainly didn't pay to meet one unarmed!

[Rabid]

Not for many years, on the farm I grew up on, we had a lab that caught rats the size of a big cat, remember bumping into one that had picked some poison up in the middle of the day, it just sat in the yard hunched up looking at me, it made me think twice about rats I don't mind admitting, not seen anything that size for a good few years though.

[T 20]

We have a few nutria here and they do get up to around a yard long. They look very much like a rat. I had a really good laugh at a roofing helper because of one of them. He was looking in the back yard where we were looking at a chimney leak and there were 2 of these things. Both were pretty much full size and my helper was ready to vacate the job site until I explained that they weren't really rats.

We don't call them Nutria over here, Mr Poole --- we call them Coypu.

There was a big Coypu population in the UK in the 1960s and 1970s but they have now been pretty much eradicated.




All the best Mick

[Unframed Dave]

Still see them around here now and again mick.

Dave