The viral shower rat in the video above started making the rounds on reddit and twitter just three days ago.
In the video a rat appears to be enjoying a shower, scrubbing like a human with soap and lathering himself up.
Even UFC president Dana White, and UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley were shocked by the video, and shared on their verified social media platforms.
However, despite the original uploader’s claim that he simply walked into his bathroom in Peru, to see a rate cleaning himself like a person, this is not the case. In fact, the poor animal isn’t a rat, and it is not enjoying itself, it’s the opposite.
Hint: Rats have tails…
Several notable twitter profiles reacted to the video with mixed results.
Why is this rat bathing like a grown ass man who put in 14 hours at the coal mining factory? https://t.co/Ybi5m0WbW6
— cнιcĸen ѕaммιcн & waғғle ғrιeѕ..ғo’ ғree (@HitDaBoogiez) January 28, 2018
My 10,000 rats washing the blood of my enemies off after battle pic.twitter.com/cc2VUS4zxz
— 6'7 Igwe (@SheWantsTheVic) January 28, 2018
very troubled by the rat taking a shower. how does the rat know to scrub his ass
— a showering rat (@marrowing) January 29, 2018
if the shower rat is real i am going to be a better person and live a better life from now on because it made my heart feel full. if i find out it’s fake i am going completely in the other direction.
— your own personal jesus (@Kappa_Kappa) January 29, 2018
Everyone: SHOWER RAT!!! ????????
Some asshole rat scientist: It’s doing that because it’s dying.— TWlTTER DOT COM SLASH PIXELATED BOAT (@pixelatedboat) January 29, 2018
A report from Newsweek, involving an expert in rodents, breaks down why this is actually a sad example of animal cruelty, and not something fun and innocent.
The Newsweek report states,
Furthermore, the animal is definitely not a rat. It’s a pacarana, a different type of brown rodent from South America.
“With the large head size, bipedal position, flexible forelimbs, short stiff tail, and consistent coat color…this animal fits the ID of a pacarana,” Dallas Krentzel, an evolutionary biologist who studies rodent diversity at the University of Chicago and the Field Museum, told Newsweek.
“There is just no other rodent that would fit all of those features, and the fact that this video was taken in Peru where pacaranas are known just seals the deal.”
“Both pacas and pacaranas are some of my favorite species for how weird they are, so I took notice of this post today,” Krentzel said. As he explains, pacarana are arboreal, meaning their habitats are in trees. Pacaranas are also fairly comfortable standing on their hind legs, and many online videos of pacaranas show the rodents in upright stances.
That stance made it a star in the “shower rat” video. “It makes sense that this animal could wash itself like a human because it needs that forelimb mobility for foraging and food processing,” said Krentzel.
The animal in the video, standing next to a drain, is larger than a rat and has a very large face. Also unlike rats, it doesn’t have a long, snake-like tail.
In short, this is a young pacarana that someone covered with soap, which it’s trying to get rid of in the video. It’s interesting to look at as it sits on its hind legs, but Krentzel notes that this kind of washing isn’t natural for it. Rather, it’s unsafe and potentially inhumane.
