The Naked Mole Rat
By: Lilian Gentry

Fun Facts:

• Their mass is: 1.2 oz.
• Their habitat is: Arid areas of East Africa.
• Scientific name is: Heterocephalus Glaber
• Their population is common.
• They aren't endangered.
• Conservation status: Least concern (population stable)

Interesting Facts

• Their lifespan are up to 31 years.
• A new study links the naked mole rat"s remarkable lifespan to molecular chaperone protein known as HSP25

What Naked Mole Rats Eat?

• Naked mole rats eat their own poop their reason is the roots and tubers they eat are very hard to digest, so their intestines are full of microscopic organisms to help digestion.

Facts

• The naked mole rat also known as the sand puppy or desert mole rat, is a burrowing blesmol native to parts of East Africa and is the only species currently classified in the genus heterocephalus.

Naked Mole Rat

• Length: 8-10 centimeters, weight: 30-35 grams.
• Gestation Period (the process of carrying or being carried in the womb between conception and birth) is 70 days or 10 weeks.

Life Cycle of a Naked Mole Rat

• Naked mole rats become sexually mature around 1 year of age.
• Gestation is approximately 70 days (10 weeks). Litters average 12 pups.
• The queen nurses them for one month, then the entire colony cooperatively rears them to maturity.
• The queen mole rat can live up to be 13 to 18 years old. Naked mole rats are some of the longest-lived members of the rodent family.

Naked mole rat diet

• Naked mole rats are radicivores, meaning that they eat primarily tubers. One large tuber can feed an entire colony for years.

What is the naked mole rats habitat?

• Naked mole rats spend nearly their entire lives below ground in burrows.
• Naked mole rat colonies can span two to three miles in cumulative length.
• Their burrows are completely dark, very warm, and contain little oxygen.
• Naked mole rats range horn of Africa (Eritrea, Djibouti. Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia.

Naked mole rat lifestyle

• Naked mole rats live exclusively underground. They are eusocial and have a social system similiar to bees, wasps, ants, and termites.

Some of my neighbors (in the wild)

• Rufous-beaked snakes
• other Naked mole rats
• Dung beetles

Population Status & Threats

• Naked mole rats are common in the wild. Snakes and other underground predators are their largest threats.

The End