New Queen For Naked Mole Rats!

The naked mole rat queen is dead; the naked mole rat queen lived so long. The long political drama at the Smithsonian National Zoo had finally come to an end; its naked mole rat colony has settled on a new queen. And she may govern long. Naked mole rats are what scientists call eusocial animals: adults live in groups and care for their young ones, and only certain individuals get the privilege to look after their young. Ants and bees are more famous for this behavior and are mostly seen among insects. There are only two mammalian species considered truly eusocial, and both are species of mole rat.
Queen-bee-style is the most dominant mole rat ladies fight off competitors for the right to bear their colony’s young ones. Well, breeding as fast as possible. At the National Zoo, this struggle brought the adult brood down from 17 to 13 from few months. And they’ve been fighting and killing each other. "There are mole-rat wars to determine who's going to be the queen or who's going to breed with the queen.”
It’s not surprising that this lady came out on top: she weighs 81 grams, and her second-closest competitor is just 55 grams. Her first litter consists three pups, but she’s going to get pregnant again —and as progressive pregnancies stretch out her spine (gross) she’ll grow to carry much larger broods. Queens can also prevent puberty. The mechanism behind this isn't easy understood, but scientists have found that non-breeding females in a colony are actually infertile, with sexual organs that appear pre-pubescent. As soon as one of these ladies is shipped out on her own maturity, as she prepares to stake her own claim as a baby-making queen.
They get killed cold blooded. These are the only mammals whose bodies can’t regulate a steady internal temperature. Their temperature is more in common with cold-blooded animals like reptiles than it does with other rodents. That’s why they squirm around in big, squishy, pasty piles: when they’re not killing each other for the throne, they do a great struggle to stay warm.
We also can't hurt them. Naked mole rats don't seem to feel pain. The animals don't react to acid burns on their skin, and they don't treat an injured area as if it's sensitive to heat or touch. Their pain receptors are less sensitive than any other mammal, which means they can take a few punches before their bodies start experiencing hurt.
Naked mole rats are known to scarf down feces to get any nutrients left to obtain. It is possible she feeds it to her workers in order to pass along the pregnancy hormones that liable a new mother to care for her young. Since naked mole rat mamas don't bother with babysitting their own offspring, they depend on others in the colony to protect the pups as if they were mothers themselves.

By: Saksham Gupta
Content: https://www.popsci.com/naked-mole-rat-queen-facts/