In a scenario straight out of a horror movie, an area of the Ayeyarwady Region’s Haingyi Kyun has suddenly had a massive influx of mice to the point where officials are actually paying villagers to capture and bring them the rodents.
No one knows why tens of thousands of rats have suddenly descended upon the area, collectively referred to as the Kyauk Chaung village group, and authorities are worried it might be a sign of an impending major natural disaster.
Speaking to News Watch yesterday, a villager from Than Cho Tan village confirmed: “In [Zi Chaing village] which is about seven miles away from us, the mice came into the village in a row, like ants. The villagers hit them with sticks, slingshots, and rocks, and managed to kill over a thousand. Yesterday, they killed another thousand. This evening, the mice entered our village as well and so far we’ve managed to kill over 800.”
According to Kumudra, Zi Chaing village officials have resorted to burning the mice, and are paying people MMK50 per mouse that they can bring to them. One local told Kumudra that they burned over 700 mice yesterday. In addition to being an annoyance, there are also worries about possible diseases that the mice could have brought with them.
On Facebook, retired weatherman and weather expert Dr Tun Lwin stated that such a large scale relocation might be because the mice’s usual home has run out of food and water. Additionally, he noted that animals such as snakes and mice can sense when an earthquake is coming days before it actually happens, which could also be the case here. He referred to a 2015 study published in Physics and Chemistry of the Earth in which scientists found a significant decline in animal activity in Peru’s Yanachaga National Park approximately a month before a major 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck the area.
