It's Alive Plants

Rats with poisonous hairdos live surprisingly sociable private lives

It’s snuggling and togetherness when the deadly, swaggering rodents have families

crested rats

Big, fluffy crested rats of East Africa make their own poisonous hair-care products and have an unexpectedly cuddly social side.

Stephanie Higgins

By Susan Milius

Crested rats don’t just chew tree bark that’s poisonous enough to kill an elephant. The rabbit-sized rodents dribble and lick the toxic drool into their long rat fluff for a weaponized hairdo. Yet these dangerous rats, which scientists assumed were loners, turn out to have a close and cuddly family life.