Giant rat discovered in Indonesia

The world's biggest known rat has been discovered roaming around in a remote jungle in Indonesia.

The massive rodent was initially mistaken for a cat when it was spotted, but American and Indonesian scientists working at a camp in the forest were shocked when they realised it was actually a giant rat.

And the newly-discovered species apparently displayed no fear of human beings when it wandered into the camp looking for something to eat.

Researcher Neville Kemp, who was part of the team that made the exciting discovery, said: "The rat is an interesting one. It's 1.4 kilograms. It's about five times the size of a normal city rat that we would see running around Jakarta for instance. It has got very large, long gray hair, and a large wide underside. It's about 55cm long.

"Of course it's very exciting, and actually there's more news to come. Because a lot of the material from the 2005 expedition is still being studied in museums. And we think there's still some more species to be published."

The rat was found in the Foja mountains rainforest in eastern Papua province in a June expedition, said US-based Conservation International, which organised the trip along with the Indonesian Institute of Science.

© Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.

Share this article

Send this article to a friend »

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Reddit
• Facebook
• StumbleUpon

What are these?