[SmG Jormungand]

Does anyone else like mole rats?

1 ) Despite their names, naked mole rats are neither moles nor rats (nor are they totally hairless). They are more closely related to porcupines and guinea pigs.
2 ) Naked mole rats live in the horn of Africa and are native to Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya.
3 ) They are one of only two mammal species that are eusocial. Eusociality, a type of social organization in which individuals live in a hierarchy, is more familiarly found in insects like ants and wasps. 

There is a queen mole rat, soldiers and workers. (The other eusocial mammal species is another type of mole rat.)

4 ) Soldier mole rats defend the colony from both predators—mostly snakes—and foreign mole rats, which they identify as foreign by their odor.
5 ) Worker mole rats are celibate and spend most of their time digging.
6 ) The queen isn’t born a queen. She’s a female who has fought her way to the top.
7 ) Naked mole rats live almost their entire lives in darkness underground, which is why zoo displays keep them under dim, red lights.
8 ) A colony of naked mole rats can consist of 20 to 300 individuals. Their underground territory can be as large as six football fields.

9 ) The burrow has rooms for specific purposes, such as nesting, raising young, eating and waste disposal.
10 ) They’re not blind. However, their eyes are very small and naked mole rats will often close them when they run through the tunnels.
11 ) A mole rat’s incisors can be moved independently of each other and even work together like a pair of chopsticks.
12 ) They are the longest-lived rodents, with a lifespan of up to 30 years.
13 ) No one has ever found cancer in naked mole rats; they appear to be resistant to the disease.

Source:  https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-n...-28758269/