The name ‘rat king’ may come from the old superstition that an aged wise rat sat on the entangled tails of rats and was treated as royalty by the pack. Alternatively it could derive from an early belief that the entangled rats were one organism, a supreme rat with many bodies.

The Rat King is a fictional character from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles multimedia franchise. The character was created by Jim Lawson and first appeared in the comic Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #4 written by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird and has made various appearances since, in the comic books and other mediums, such as animated series and video games.

The Rat King remains one of the more enigmatic characters in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, with various appearances depicting him as either a villain, a neutral character and even an ally of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The Rat King has a distinguishable attire, which consists of filthy, tattered rags and, most prominently, various bandages covering his body. As his name implicates, the Rat King has apparent telepathic influence over rats, with his only other consistent power being his immense strength (which varies throughout incarnations of the character).

On the other side, No zoologist has been able to prove exactly how rat kings are formed in nature. It is possible that the tails become entangled when the rats huddle together facing outward for warmth and security, with urine and droppings from those in the upper circle falling onto the entwined mass of tails. According to this theory when the rats try to pull apart the tails are pulled tighter, and the knots strengthen, knitting the rats together. Other possibilities are that the tails might become entangled while the males are fighting for females, during mass grooming, in the nest shortly after birth or after the tails of a number of rats come into contact with some sticky substance. The rat king remains as much a mystery to scientists today as it was to medieval peasants.



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