A video of a rat taking a shower has taken the internet by storm, but while many are going gaga over the squeaky-clean rodent others remained skeptical about "Showering Rat."
And what's more . . . it's been revealed that the animal may not be a rat at all. At least according to Dallas Krentzel, an evolutionary biologist who studies rodent diversity at the University of Chicago at the Field Museum.
"With the large head size, bipedal position, flexible forelimbs, short stiff tail, and consistent coat color . . . this animal fits the ID of a pacarana," Krentzel told Newsweek.
Some claimed the "rat" was a life-like robot while others speculate that legendary performance artist Zardulu, who claimed to have trained the “Pizza Rat,” was behind the video, The Sun reported.
The bizarre clip, which was slickly produced and uploaded on Saturday, shows the rodent standing on its hind legs and "washing" itself with soapy water in a bathroom sink in Huaraz city, Peru, the Daily Mail reported.
The animal acts strangely human-like as it mindfully appears to lather the soap into its fur, and it caught the world’s attention as thousands scrambled to share the video across social media platforms.
“He was just like a human, I've never seen anything like it,” said electronic DJ Jose Correa, who said he was about to take a shower when he saw the animal and decided to film it, according to The Mirror.
“It went on for about 30 seconds, and then he ran off. I think he just wanted to give himself a good clean,” Correa said, adding that he cared about animals and was concerned about protecting the rodent’s privacy.
“I would never want to hurt him,” he said. “So I just filmed him and let him go.”
Tuomas Aivelo, a researcher in urban rat biology at the University of Helsinki in Finland, told Gizmodo that it's possible the animal wasn't cleaning itself at all.
“The movements are pretty strange,” Aivelo said. “A rat wouldn’t do that unless there’s something it really wants to get rid of. I think it’s soapy all over. That’s probably a problem for the rat. It just wants to get rid of the soap.”
Rodents have been called many things, but cute rarely surfaces in the same sentence. Things are starting to change though.
The New York City rodent dubbed “Pizza Rat” challenged perceptions that rats couldn’t be kind of cute after it was captured on video hauling a slice of pizza down some subway steps.
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