Meet two of the world's largest rats - one is long and one weighs... close to 4kg, to be exact. But there are more than 70 species of mice in the world, and the size of this most common rodent depends on where you are and how you measure it.
You're most likely to encounter the relatively small brown rat (Rattusnorvegicus), which is 15-27cm long from nose to tail and weighs 200-300g - but that's a minnow for the largest rat on the planet.
The largest rat in the world is the Gambian kangaroo (Cricetomys gambianus) native to Africa, with a body length of 43 cm and a tail length of 45 cm, totaling 88 cm, with an average weight of 1.3 kg.
They like to live in cracks, caves, hollow trees and even termite mounds, feeding on insects, snails, nuts, seeds and fruits.
Challenging them for the title of largest rat in terms of size is the Sumatran bamboo rat (Rhizomys sumatrensis). Its tail is only 20 centimeters long, but its body is 50 centimeters long and weighs 3.9 kilograms. It definitely earns the title of heaviest rat.
Unlike the Gambian kangaroo, it feeds on bamboo roots, bamboo shoots, seeds, fallen fruits and leaves.
The largest rodent in the world is not a rat, but a capybara.
