Naked blind mole rats – why?

Naked mole rats, they’re neither moles nor rats nor hairless. They live their lives underground and when it gets cold they form a huddle and heat each other. They don’t get cancer, can go without oxygen for a half an hour, never see the sun, almost blind and don’t feel certain kinds of pain. One colony can be from 20 – 300 and their territory may stretch for half a mile. The average colony has 75 individuals and they are a foul bunch.  They live in low oxygen, smelly, and often crowded tunnels and use their teeth to dig holes. The naked mole rats must dig their communes themselves, with their teeth.  The queen, who is the mother of the entire colony, is the only female who breeds; a few males are kept aside for breeding purposes as well. Worker mole rats create the tunnel system and its chambers meant for breeding, eating, and defecating.  Naked mole rats eat their poop because their main food source is tubers which need to be digested more than once. So once they’ve pooped out their food, they just ingest it again. Also, since the naked mole rats are nearly blind, they identify themselves as part of the colony by rolling around in the poop chambers. That way, everyone stinks exactly the same and colony members can be easily identified.

http://www.delta-optimist.com/opinion/blogs/deltabc-1.983313/blog-naked-blind-mole-rats-why-1.2089444

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/naked-blind-mole-rats-why-randy-bilesky?published=t

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