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As you can tell from the picture, we are going to talk about another incredibly cute animal today.\u00a0 As Glenn over at Man Over Board <\/a>would say, “It has the face only a mother could love”.\u00a0 So what is this hairless rodent? Well it is a naked mole rat also known as the sand puppy, not to be confused with the mud puppy which we discussed in Wild Fact #973<\/a>.\u00a0 Besides the ability to gross out human beings the naked mole rat has evolved some interesting adaptations which we will discuss today.<\/p>\n

Before we get into the adaptations let’s learn a little bit about his cute little rodent. The naked mole rat is a small rodent that spends most of its time below the surface.\u00a0 Similar, to bees, the naked mole rat will live in communities of several dozen relatives.\u00a0 They have a queen mole rat which is the only one that is able to reproduce.\u00a0 Other naked mole rats will tend to the queen or dig tunnels and gather food for their clan.\u00a0 This type of living arrangement is very unusual for mammals.<\/p>\n

It seems that animals with an unique environment have evolved unique adaptations to survive in that environment.\u00a0 The naked mole rat is no different and has several characteristics that makes living undergound possible. First there is the usual underground adaptations such as small eyes that don’t see very well.\u00a0 Let’s face, eye sight isn’t the most important feature when you live in the dark. As well, the naked mole rat has thin and short legs yet they are very capable of moving around in their tunnels.\u00a0 In fact, the naked mole rat can move just as fast backwards as it can moving forward.\u00a0 At this point, you might be asking how can they possibly dig all those tunnels with such small wimpy legs.\u00a0 Well, they actually use their large protruding teeth to mine the underground world. Even more interesting is how their lips are sealed just behind their teeth.\u00a0 Obviously, this prevents their mouths from filling up with sand while digging.\u00a0 I would think that would be a very important feature. The blood of the naked mole rat is excellent at taking in oxygen which allows this rodent the ability to live in an oxygen deprived environment.\u00a0 As well, they have a very low respiration and metabolic rate in order to conserve the all important oxygen. Finally, the naked mole rat does not feel pain.\u00a0 They are actually missing the neurotransmitter that sends the pain signals to the brain. What benefit could this serve? You mean other than never having to tap out in a naked mole rat UFC Event? Actually,\u00a0 the naked mole rat has a large amount of acid built up in their tissues as a result of\u00a0 living in a world that is poorly ventilated, and as a result contains high amounts of carbon dioxide.\u00a0 The lack of this neurotransmitter allows them to have this acid build-up and not constantly be keeled over in pain.<\/p>\n

Naked Mole Rat Fast Fact:<\/strong> Recently researchers have identified that the brain tissue of the naked mole rat can actually withstand oxygen deprivation for over 30 minutes.\u00a0 This may give researchers some clues in dealing with brain injuries resulting from heart attacks, strokes and other injuries where the brain is deprived of oxygen.\u00a0 I highly recommend checking out this interesting article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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As you can tell from the picture, we are going to talk about another incredibly cute animal today.\u00a0 As Glenn over at Man Over Board would say, “It has the face only a mother could love”.\u00a0 So what is this hairless rodent? Well it is a naked mole rat also known as the sand puppy, not to be confused with the mud puppy which we discussed in Wild Fact #973.\u00a0 Besides the ability to gross out human beings the naked mole rat has evolved some interesting adaptations which we will discuss today. Before we get into the adaptations let’s learn <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60,4024],"tags":[348,330,329,4025,331,309,4027],"yoast_head":"\n