I'm a big fan of weird looking creatures, and the naked mole rat certainly fits the bill. I find them adorable, with their squinty little eyes, wrinkly hairless bodies, and freakily protruding teeth. What's not to love? So what, exactly, is a naked mole rat? The Smithsonian National Zoo website describes them:
Naked mole-rats, as their name suggests, are pink, nearly hairless subterranean rodents. These surprisingly long-lived animals are one of the only true eusocial mammals and live in underground burrows in eastern Africa.
Naked mole-rats have wrinkly pink or grayish-pink skin, which is somewhat translucent on their undersides and light purplish-brown on their backs and tails. This countershading appears to be lost with advanced age. They have short, broad heads with powerful jaw muscles and very large incisors, which they use to dig tunnels.
If you want to check out some naked mole rats in action, go watch this video from the Oregon Zoo, where all of your questions will be answered. The video covers topics like what are mole rats, what is their social system like, what is their life span and weight, and much more. You can also watch the mole rats eating and crawling through their tunnels. And a couple of minutes into the video you can also meet "Molebert," one of the adorable mole rats at the Oregon Zoo.
