How Large Can a Rat Get?

[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.

[peddy]

Used to have a rat and feral pigeon shoot in a factory that made whey protein, the buggers (rats) were pumped up and very strong, saw a Huge one drag a shot feral down a hole. Suppose it depends what they feed on. Caught a large one in my live trap that filled the cage, it was nearly strong enough to push back open the sprung cage door. I thumped a hollow nose pellet into it in a bit of a panick!!

[bighit]

used to be a grain mill near my folks . there was huge rats there. like cats .

[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

[Randy Bohannon]

The size of a small cat.

Felt under gunned with the .22lr

[T 20]

Still see them around here now and again mick.

Dave

I'm just going on the Defra report from a couple of years ago, Dave.

In the 1960s the local cattle market used to have a display of stuffed animals that were classed as vermin in the UK, fifty years later I still have nightmares about encountering a hungry Coypu.

I like Capybaras though.

[greenwayjames]

Someone may have let loose a capybara. They can weigh up to 180 lbs Worlds largest rodent, 2-3lbs at birth