Thursday, January 22, 2009

New Species of Giant Rat

Since i don't have a chance to go into the forest and doing observations by myself, i am searching for any news on animals that interests me. In my previous posts, World's Largest Extinct Rodent i found an interesting findings on the largest rats with weigh ~700 kilograms. However, it was an extinct species, so how about the alive giant rats?

A giant rat was recorded by scientists as probable new species to science on their expedition to Indonesia's remote and virtually unknown "Lost World" in the pristine wilderness of western New Guinea's Foja Mountains.

The giant rat was about five times the size of a typical city rat as per Dr. Kristofer Helgen, as Scientist with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. This rat have no fear of human and apparently came into the camp several times during the trip.

Photo Courtesy: Conservation International

The photo shows the mammal expert Martua Sinaga holds a 3-pound (1.4 kg) rat.

4 comments:

Rick (Ratty) said...

In Detroit I have seen rats that are at least half the size of the one in the picture. These are considered vermin, unlike the one you show. Our city is full of big rats. We have a river, called the Rouge River, where big rats swim. At night you can see swarms of them jumping in and out of that polluted river. I'm glad I don't live near it anymore.

Anonymous said...

*WooooooooooW*
What a big rat! I wish don't go near them!
See you around.

Bornean Rose said...

Ratty -- I think that one is the town rat or commensal rat like, house rat (Rattus rattus) or Norway rat (Rattus norvegicus). When i was doing my undergrads project i use to trap rats at port and i captured lots of Norway rat and the size was really big too. They are a good swimmer, no doubt on that.

Bornean Rose said...

Lunaticg -- I don't think i will hold it alive with my bare hands too..:). Thanks for stopping by. Have a nice day!