Angry female naked mole rat. Credit: Buffenstein/Barshop Institute/UTHSCSA
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#Alphabet Crazy Challenge: Quiz on the Naked Mole Rats

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Naked mole rats are neither rats nor moles. They closely resemble guinea pigs or a porcupines.

The naked mole rats are found in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somali.

A naked mole rat is one of the two mammals (the other being another type of mole cat) whose social organisation resembles that of insects such as ants and bees. The organization consists of a queen, her two or three males who mate with her to increase their colony and workers. The workers don’t engage in any sexual intercourse with each other or with the queen.

The queen isn’t born in a stately house and reared as a princess till she reaches the age of ruling as a queen. She fights for that position.

The workers are divided into two: workers whose work is to dig ‘tunnels’ and workers whose job is to guard their colony from external invasion especially from snakes and foreign naked mole rats. As is the case with bees and ants, the major role of soldiers is to protect the queen.

A colony of naked mole rats can range from  minimum of 20 to maximum of 300.

The naked mole rats can survive in an environment that has low percentage of oxygen and a high concentration of carbon dioxide. This means that they can survive in an atmosphere that consists of 20% oxygen and 80% carbon dioxide.

The gestation period of a female naked mole rat is 70 days.

  • Question of

    They are carnivores

    • Yes
    • No
  • Question of

    They usually sleep upside down (on their backs)

    • Yes
    • No
  • Question of

    Their lifespan reaches up to

    • 30 years
    • 27 years
    • 33 years
  • Question of

    They are resistant to cancer

    • Yes
    • No
  • Question of

    A quarter of mole rat’s muscle mass is located on its jaws

    • Yes
    • No
  • Question of

    They are known to eat their poop (feaces)

    • Yes
    • No
  • Question of

    They are blind thus use their other senses to do their normal chores

    • Yes
    • No
  • Question of

    The mole rats can move their front teeth (incisors) separately from each other and the teeth can work together like a pair of chopsticks

    • Yes
    • No
  • Question of

    They can neither feel pain nor itch on their skin

    • Yes
    • No
  • Question of

    The queen doesn’t experience menopause like human beings

    • Yes
    • No
  • Question of

    They are warm-blooded

    • Yes
    • No
  • Question of

    They can survive for 18 minutes in an environment that lacks oxygen

    • Yes
    • No
  • Question of

    They have

    • 17 different vocalizations
    • 26 different vocalisations
    • 13 different vocalisations

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Written by Benny

28 Comments

  5. Wow. This is such a great quiz. I had no idea that this animal was this interesting. You blew me away. I want to know more about this animal for sure. They live a long time, that really surprised me and that they are cold blooded. So many odd things about this creature. Fabulous subject Intro.

    1

    • Thank you, Kim. It has odd facts that astonished me when researching about it. I do feel sorry for its unlikeable face though it’s cute. It’s astonishing how long they live, are cold blooded, have a social structure and are immune to cancer. Scientists are investigating why they don’t get cancer. They might provide an answer how to deal with the cancer menace.