It’s the video that has gone viral around the world: Shower rat.
Entertainment
Yes, a video filmed in Peru appears to capture a rat standing on its hind legs and lathering up inside a sink as if to be taking a shower. In his blatant and unexpected moment of cleanliness, the “shower rat” even makes sure to “scrub” under his armpits. However, everything is not always as it seems.
Apparently, the rat in the video is not a rat after all. According to an evolutionary biologist, the now world-famous rodent has since been identified as a pacarana, which is very common in the region. Additionally, Tuomas Aivelo, a researcher in Urban Rat biology at the University of Helsinki in Finland, has explained that because rodents regularly groom themselves by using only their mouths, the animal in the video is probably just distressed by feeling a strange and soapy substance on its fur. Or, in other words, the rodent is not bathing itself but probably just trying to remove the suds from its body.
Still, the video is quite amusing and worth a look. Check it out and decide for yourself if it really resembles a rat taking a shower.
THANK GOD IT’S FRIDAY!
Well…I’m not into rodents of any kind. But I have to say I kinda feel for the one in the video given what the rat researcher stated:
…”rodents regularly groom themselves by using only their mouths, the animal in the video is probably just distressed by feeling a strange and soapy substance on its fur.”
So my questions would be -who put soap on the “pacarana” in the first place? And was that person – or persons-aware it could send the poor animal into distress?
TGIF!