Killer Cat-Sized Rats Invade Florida

The African rodent known as the Giant Gambian pouch rats, have hit Florida's grassy keys, despite efforts to eradicate them.

Yikes

Reply to
Oren
Loading thread data ...

There is NO effort, only dept of wildlife/game control-freaks waving their hands while loudly decrying the problem. There would be NO problem if the state put a bounty on the damn vermin and allowed open season. The damn things would be extinct in a week. But, noooooo! That would be too easy. Friggin' dolts.

nb

Reply to
notbob

A great military leader once said: "The penis is mightier than the sword," by which he meant that the enemy can breed faster than you can kill them.

Louisiana has a bounty on nutria tails and no closed season. There are still plenty of nutria.

Reply to
HeyBub

Once when I was a college student, I was taking the #7 train in Queens coming home and around the old Shea Stadium the corner of my eye caught near the edge of a oily small body of water, an animal the size of a large cat. I realized what I saw was I think a water rat (it was no cat) and it was huge. I was probably 50+ feet elevated above the water but it was big enough to catch the corner of my eye so I know it was huge. I never could believe a rat could be so large.... scary.

Reply to
Doug

Since the state is paying out per unit, there is no motive to make them extinct, and shut off the cash flow.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

formatting link
.

A great military leader once said: "The penis is mightier than the sword," by which he meant that the enemy can breed faster than you can kill them.

Louisiana has a bounty on nutria tails and no closed season. There are still plenty of nutria.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

That oily small body of water is the Flushing River, cleaned up a bit now but probably still polluted enough to mutate a giant rat.

Reply to
dgk

The aforementioned Gambian Pouch rats have been showing up in Brooklyn the last couple years. But that many years ago I'd put my money on a muskrat. 5-6 pounds wouldn't be unheard of- and they are a couple feet long, but *look* bigger.

Jim

Reply to
Jim Elbrecht

That's right :-)

Reply to
Doug

I don't think this was a muskrat because it was a lot bigger looking. It was twice or more as round as a cat, longer than a cat and had at least a foot long tail like a rat. It had to be big to catch the corner of my eye so high above and then I did stare straight down at it to try to judge how large before the train moved along. I'm just glad I didn't have to see it face to face.

Reply to
Doug

Big with a tail like a rat is an Opossum.

Reply to
Dan Espen

What I thought were big rats turned out to be possums.

formatting link

Reply to
Frank

No, this was much larger. I once had a possum mom and her litter in my garage so I got closeup to them minus the mom. Matter of fact when I had animal control come, he told me the only reason I probably got this close to the little ones was because the mom probably got killed before returning. I remember them snarling at the guy but he had heavy gloves on. Most were in a box except one or two that he had to chase around my garage but he caught them too. I asked what they did with them and he said release them near a river bank. Not sure tho these would make it being so young looking??? Anyway, since I saw possums up close, I know this rat I saw was much larger. It had to be the size of a medium dog at least based on all accounts I can remember sizing it up.

Reply to
Doug

See my previous post about possums. Also I may be wrong but I don't think NYC (Queens) has possums but they sure have lots of rats :(

Reply to
Doug

I seem to faintly recall some calling large rats = sewer rats because they eat well and undisturbed in NYC sewers for years. I wish I had taken a picture of it but this was before digital cameras and besides I was a poor college student then in a subway with no reason for a camera.

Reply to
Doug

Saw it going through thread after posting. I know I made this mistake when I was younger thinking they were big rats.

Reply to
Frank

Ooops. My bad. Because of the subject line of this thread I thought it may be a discussion about the Black Panthers, Al Sharpton and other radical racists stirring up trouble in Florida before all of the facts are gathered. And they call us racist!

Reply to
Gordon Shumway

does the D-Train go to Queens?

formatting link
That's a small-medium sized possum. I've seen them at least twice that size. Corner them and they'll double that.

Jim

Reply to
Jim Elbrecht

Jim I don't remember. I'd have to check a subway map. I was on the #7 IRT subway then which was elevated over the water when I spotted this rodent. BTW, interesting story !! I saw a link to a 3 foot long rat so as everyone can see, I'm not making this stuff up. NYC rats or the like can grow BIG .

Reply to
Doug

This is a common problem. They look a lot like rats. Personally, I'd rather encounter and opossum than a rat.

Reply to
tangerine3

Yea, but most of them live in the Whitehouse and disguise themselves as elephants or donkeys!!!

They really do eat well though!!!!

Reply to
tangerine3

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.