The Naked Truth about Mole Rat

Heterocephalus glaber or simply naked mole rats are not the best challengers to win a beauty contest, most people even claim them ugly and unpleasant but scientist are votaries of these unusual rodents. They consider mole rats to be completely bizarre and simply … charming. 

Appearance

Naked mole rats are small rodents, possessing cylindrical bodies and rather short limbs. They are perfect at burrowing. Their eyes are very tiny, these creatures have very poor eyesight. The first teeth are large and protrude out of their mouths. The skin is almost hairless, very pink and so saggy.

Profession

Naked mole rats are skillful diggers. They live in colonies underground and burrow tunnels to find roots. Very often they work in a team, thus, looking like excavators. BTW, in every colony everything is organized very strictly.

Cool facts

• one naked mole rat (captured in the wild when it was approximately 1 year old) lived for more than 27 years! Not very long? A mouse in a lab lives 10 times as shorter;
• scientists have never seen a naked mole-rat with cancer (most mice have can it);
• almost no age-related declines in any system.