Interesting Facts about the Naked Mole Rat The naked mole rat is one of the most interesting animals and even though many will find it looking awkward and ugly, however they are quite fascinating. Although known as the naked mole rat, it is neither a rat nor is it a mole. It is more closely associated to guinea pigs and porcupines as compared to rats and moles. They are called naked because they have close to no hair on their bodies and therefore appear to be naked considering other animals have fur. The little hair they have is in the form of whiskers and little hairs on their tails and in between their toes which helps them to feel their way underground and sense their environment. They are also known as desert mole rats or the sand puppy. …show more content…
In doing this they are able to control their body temperature because it will conform to the environmental temperature. The Social Life of the Naked Mole Rats Interestingly, even though the naked mole rats are mammals, they show a social life referred to as eusociality. This is the same social life as the ones that ants and wasps exhibit. There is a queen, and this is the only female that reproduces. There are a few males who will mate with the queen while the rest of the colony is made up of workers and guards. The workers collect food, dig burrows and take care of the young ones and also act as guards when attacked, they will defend the colony. The workers are sterile and cannot reproduce and therefore they only focus on getting food and taking care of the nest. They only way that females would become reproductive is when they take over the colony or when they start their own colony. Once they become queens, the female becomes reproductive. When young ones are born, it is the duty of the workers to take care of the pups. They do this by keeping them safe, keeping them from wandering away, feeding them, keeping them warm and grooming