![]() Groups live communal lives like termites, as do their more famous cousins, the naked mole rats. With one of the oddest social systems yet found in mammals, these sub-Saharan rodents spend their lives in networks of underground tunnels that they continually excavate.ĭamaraland mole rats have taken mammal sociality to the next level. He’d inadvertently found-or been found by-Damaraland mole rats, the very creatures he’d come to study. A mound of dirt had arisen under Faulkes. Yet the next morning, “there was a whopping great lump,” he says. The ground beneath him had been flat enough when he went to sleep. How do we care for the animals?ĭr Smith explains in this film, produced by Understanding Animal Research.On his first trip into Namibia, Chris Faulkes woke up in his tent with a peculiar kink in his back. This work enhances understanding of how nerve cells can function in the absence of oxygen, and might lead to work that uncovers novel treatments to prevent brain damage in stroke patients. See: Secrets of naked mole-rat cancer resistance unearthed.ĭr Smith was also part of an earlier study that demonstrated that naked mole-rats are highly resistant to hypoxia and anoxia, due to their cells being able to efficiently utilise fructose to power energy production during periods of low oxygen. Understanding how these remarkable animals are almost completely immune to cancer could improve our understanding of the early stages of the disease in people and lead to new ways to prevent or better treat it. ![]() In 2020 a study by Dr Ewan St John Smith, a founding member of the initiative, discovered the secrets of naked mole-rat cancer resistance. All of their work aims to leverage the extreme biology of this species to understand more about how our bodies work normally. ![]() In 2014, scientists from the Department of Pharmacology established the University of Cambridge Naked Mole-Rat Initiative, which aims to bring together experts in different scientific areas with the overarching aim being to identify molecular explanations for the highly unusual physiology of this species. Learn more here: Meet the ugly naked guys Hypoxia resistance – naked mole-rat brain tissue can withstand sustained periods of hypoxia (low oxygen levels) and even anoxia (no oxygen).Insensitivity to acid as a noxious stimulus – naked mole-rats respond normally to mechanical and thermal stimuli, but fail to perceive acid as noxious.Cancer resistance – naked mole-rats have an exceptional resistance to cancer.Extreme longevity – naked mole-rats live until 30 years of age, whereas the longevity of similarly sized mice is two to three years moreover, naked mole-rats display sustained good health into old age and unlike most mammals do not display an increased incidence of death with ageing. ![]() Over the last decade further physiological peculiarities of naked mole-rat physiology have come to light: Unlike queen bees and termites that use pheromones to control colony behaviour, a naked mole-rat queen uses aggression, being the physically dominant animal in a colony. ![]() Naked mole-rats live in large underground colonies of approximately 80 animals, which are dominated by a single breeding female, the queen this social system is highly unusual in mammals but is similar to that commonly observed in bees and termites. ![]()
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