Chicago — the city of deep-dish pizza, world-class museums, the Bean and Sears (Willis) Tower — has had a new, unusual claim to fame: the Roscoe Village Rat Hole. However, a recent study found the famed Rat Hole may not actually have come from a rat.
The concrete imprint of what looks like a full-bodied rat has been part of a Chicago neighborhood sidewalk for decades, but it didn’t hit fame until January 2024, when comedian Winslow Dumaine posted a photo of it on X. The image quickly went viral, sparking interest in a new Chicago tourist attraction.
Tourists and locals flocked to see the rodent imprint, “leaving offerings like coins, flowers, figurines and even medication” at the site, according to the study. The spot inspired a proposal, a marriage and hundreds of posts on TikTok.
However, not everyone was so enchanted, and the influx of visitors drew complaints from neighbors. In April 2024, the Chicago Department of Transportation stepped in, removing and replacing the sidewalk slab — much to the dismay of fans who had affectionately dubbed the imprint “Splatatouille” in a naming contest, a nod to Disney’s rat chef film, “Ratatouille.”
The slab is now being kept on the 11th floor of City Hall, as reported by local news station Fox 32.
The ‘squirrely’ culprit
Over a year later, science has weighed in.
Researchers, led by Michael Granatosky, analyzed the imprint to uncover its true identity. Their conclusion? The hole probably isn’t a rat at all, but a squirrel.
Using photos and scans of the sidewalk slab, the team compared the imprint to specimens of brown rats, house mice, Eastern grey squirrels, eastern chipmunks, muskrats, white-footed mice, fox squirrels and southern flying squirrels. Despite the lack of a bushy tail imprint — researchers noted hair would have been too thin to mark the concrete — the data suggested a 98.67% likelihood that Splatatouille was made by a squirrel. Based on local species, the researchers estimated a 50.67% chance it was an eastern grey squirrel and a 48% likelihood it was a fox squirrel.
“What a great way to get the public excited about nature and the world around them,” Granatosky said, per CNN.
“What we wanted to demonstrate is how difficult it is, even when you’re given a near-perfect scenario, to make really good findings off of these imprints,” he continued.
A Chicago icon, whatever the species
The study authors concluded with a suggestion that the hole “be rechristened the ‘Windy City Sidewalk Squirrel’ — a name more fitting of its likely origins and more aligned with the evidence at hand.”
Despite the scientific revelation, city officials aren’t rushing to change the imprint’s nickname.
“With great respect to the scientific community, the Rat Hole is part of Chicago lore now, much like the Sears (Willis) tower and Comiskey Park (Rate Field),” Ryan Gage, director of public affairs for the city of Chicago’s Department of Streets and Sanitation, told CNN. “We aren’t so sure people will be swayed by the study to refer to it as anything else.”
Whether a rat or a squirrel, the Roscoe Village imprint has firmly cemented itself as a Chicago landmark.