{"id":306866,"date":"2025-10-16T02:01:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T02:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/306866\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T02:01:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T02:01:11","slug":"chicagos-rat-hole-may-have-come-from-a-different-rodent-scientists-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/306866\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago\u2019s \u2018Rat Hole\u2019 May Have Come From a Different Rodent, Scientists Say"},"content":{"rendered":"

In early 2024, the internet was flooded with pictures of a rodent-shaped hole in a Chicago sidewalk. Many assumed it was a rat due to the imprint of what appeared to be the animal\u2018s tail; people even called it \u201cSplatatouille\u201d or simply \u201cthe rat hole.\u201d However, a new study published in the Biology Letters journal<\/a> suggests it was likely made by a different rodent.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The Rat Hole May Be a Squirrel Hole<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The Rat Hole May Be a Squirrel Hole\"ratScientists don\u2018t think a rat did it. | WinslowDumaine<\/a>, Wikimedia Commons<\/a> \/\/ CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a> <\/p>\n

    According to The Guardian<\/a>, Michael C. Granatosky\u2014a biomechanist at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and the study\u2019s lead author\u2014and his colleagues examined 37 mammal species in Chicago. They made sure to exclude the ones that were very rare or lacked the characteristics in the pavement imprint. The researchers narrowed the animals down to eight species: brown rat, house mouse, eastern gray squirrel, eastern chipmunk, muskrat, white-footed mouse, fox squirrel, and southern flying squirrel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

    The rat hole was removed<\/a> in April 2024 after city officials deemed it damaged, but luckily it was well documented. The researchers collected public images of the rat hole and compared its dimensions with those of prepared museum skins for each of the eight species.<\/p>\n

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    Add Mental Floss as a<\/strong> preferred news source<\/strong><\/a>!<\/strong><\/p>\n

    None of them fit the exact shape and size of rat hole. However, the eastern gray squirrel, fox squirrel, and muskrat came closest to matching the imprint. The scientists acknowledge that it could have been warped due to the wet concrete spreading upon impact. Nonetheless, they agree that the gray squirrel is the most likely culprit because it is the more common species in the area.\u00a0<\/p>\n

    So what explains the imprint\u2019s rat-like tail? The researchers say it\u2019s unlikely that the hair strokes from a squirrel\u2019s bushy tail would have left lasting marks in wet concrete. There are plenty of other reasons they suspect the hole was caused by a squirrel rather than a rat: The animal appeared to have fallen from a great height, possibly from the nearby trees where squirrels usually hang out. In addition, squirrels tend to be more active in the day, and concrete is more likely to be wet during these hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In early 2024, the internet was flooded with pictures of a rodent-shaped hole in a Chicago sidewalk. Many…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":306867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[159,67,132,68,837],"class_list":{"0":"post-306866","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-united-states","10":"tag-unitedstates","11":"tag-us","12":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115381382966525126","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}