Image by Jared Klett via Flickr

Is that a rat, or are you imagining things? Nope, it's a rat, and it's as big as your forearm. Just another day in the city's subway system, says a new study that found by city officials that found major rat infestations throughout the subways.

And holy s**t... they can jump a full 2 feet.

Not every station has rats, although plenty do. Of 18 stations examined in Lower Manhattan, about half of the subway lines got a fair or poor rating for infestation, meaning they exhibited the telltale culprits -- overflowing trash cans, too much track litter -- that can lead to a rodent jamboree.

But befitting a creature that has evaded annihilation for centuries, officials found no obvious solutions: poison packets and traps have proved no match for an agile mammal known to be diabolically clever.

"They jump two feet from a running start; they can fall 40 feet onto a concrete slab and keep running," said Solomon Peeples, 86, a former director of the city's Bureau of Pest Control Services. "We're no match for them, as far as I'm concerned. Man does not stand no chance."