'Tail-eaters' is the sixth installment in Anna Starobinets's 'Beastly Detective' series.
In the Far Forest, a new, unexplored virus is raging. Doctor Rook fights unsuccessfully to save the animals' lives: there's no cure, the prognosis for those infected is grim, and precautions like tying their tails are ineffective. Everything points to the virus being man-made. Who is the evil genius who unleashed this brutal epidemic? The lives of the animals depend on the answer: whoever created the disease must also know the secret to its cure. The Police Badgers pursue the criminal, risking their own lives. And the virus is pursuing them—like the monster Tail-eater from the nursery rhyme.