Quite a few out when riding in farmland, but usually squashed on the road. I remember seeing a huge one flattened on Green Lanes, ridiculously long but then it had been rolled out by a 29 bus-shaped rolling pin.
Back then I knew some people who worked on the sewers and they had some (apocryphal) tales about sightings of ‘queen’ rats via the remote controlled buggy/video camera things they inspected the pipes with.
Last winter, descending a farm track in the dark, a jabali (Spanish wild boar) came crashing out of the hedgerow, and was trotting along next to me for a few seconds while we both wondered what to do. Thankfully it wasn’t being chased by a man with a shotgun.