Naked mole rats aren't one of the best looking animals in the world. The wrinkled skin and lack of hair turns most people off. Honestly, they kind of look like poop with short stubby legs and buck teeth. I guess beauty isn't very important when you live underground in darkness your whole life. I know I wouldn't exactly curl my hair if I knew no one would ever see me. Oddly enough, like most badly named creatures, their names are bad descriptions. They are neither moles nor rats; they are related to guinea pigs(described in an earlier blog) and porcupines. Unlike most other rodents they have a social system that is insect like consisting of a queen and workers. A single colony of naked mole rats can have up to 300 members. If a mole rat gets lost, even with food and water, they will die of loneliness. They can be found in the Horn of Africa almost exclusively. Naked mole rats weren't discovered by Western biologist until the 70s since they are almost never found above ground.
The life of a naked mole rat isn't very fun. Unless you are the Queen most of your life is spent digging. Since the Queen is also in charge of producing all the children, they don't even have to worry about their family. Each of their two front teeth can move independently for digging. They can actually control individual tooth movement. Digging keeps their teeth filed. In captivity the teeth sometimes have to be trimmed with nail cutters because they grow at such a rapid rate.
One thing I find very cute about these animals is how they love to share. They will share any bit of food with any other member of their colony and will sometimes bring back food they find especially for others (kind of like when i pick up a surprise slurpee from the 7-11 on my way home from work for my roommate). Another cool thing about naked mole rats that is kind of cool, but not quite as sweet, is what happens when one queen dies. All the other high ranking females have a fight to the death and the best woman wins.



Naked mole rats are pretty cool even if they aren't the cutest.


http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Publications/ZooGoer/2002/3/nakedmolerats.cfm