By Tim Binnall
A Russian farmer surveying flood damage on his property stumbled upon a rather unnerving quirk of Mother Nature in the form of five rats that had gotten their tails tangled together to create what is known as a 'rat king.' Alibulat Rasulov reportedly made the discovery after heavy rains had swept over his farm in the region of Stavropol last month. In a video documenting the strange find, he can be seen pulling a plant from a puddle and examining what initially appears to be a cluster of rats stuck to the vegetation. Rasulov subsequently places the animals on the dry ground, which is when their 'royal' predicament is revealed.
After being rescued from the water, the rats attempted to flee the area, but their escape proved futile as their tails had become stuck together in a knot not unlike what one might see from a ball of Christmas lights. To his credit, Rasulov actually brought the creatures into a building on the property and, as can be seen at the end of the video above, ultimately frees the creatures by slowly loosening their tails until the 'rat king' is no more and the individual rodents go scurrying off in different directions. While the phenomenon is incredibly rare, recent years have seen similar cases in the form of 'squirrel kings' being discovered in Maine as well as Wisconsin.