Giant rats that can crack open coconuts

A new species of rat – a giant rat – has been recently discovered which is actually capable of breaking coconuts from its teeth.

Found on the Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean, the rat is named ‘Uromys Vika’ and is around 19 inches (half a meter) in length. The rat continues to exist on nuts that it itself cracks open with its sharp teeth. The discovery of this rat marks the first one in 80 years.

It is been known about the Solomon Islands that the species found there are very rare and are found nowhere else on Earth. The rat was found living in the tress. It has a long, scaly tail, which the researchers believe it use to grip while moving around through the trees, according to BBC.

Publishing their study in Journal of Mammalogy, the discoverer Tyrone Lavery exclaimed, “When I first met with the people from Vangunu Island in the Solomons, they told me about a rat native to the island that they called vika, which lived in the trees.”

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Science Daily wrote, Lavery further expressed, “I started to question if it really was a separate species, or if people were just calling regular black rats 'vika'. As soon as I examined the specimen, I knew it was something different.”

The unique specie of rat is considered to be extinct since most of the trees of the Island have already been cut down. Showing his concern, Lavery said, “The area where it was found is one of the only places left with forest that hasn't been logged. It's really urgent for us to be able to document this rat and find additional support for the Zaira Conservation Area, on Vangunu, where the rat lives.”