What mammal typically births the

largest litter?

The naked mole rat –an African Mammal- commonly has litters of 25 pups and litters of over 38 have been reported.

They are also the only Eusocial mammal- which is found usually in Bees and Termites.

They have hive colonies.

Only one female (the queen) and one to three males reproduce, while the rest of the members of the colony function as workers and soldiers.

Suppression• A behaviour called reproductive

suppression is why other females do not reproduce- their infertility is only temporary rather than genetic.

Suppression• The queens are very hostile towards

other females acting like queens and when a queen dies the remaining females will kill to take her place.

Workers are sterile, with the small focusing on maintaining the nest, while larger workers act as soldiers in case of attack.

Predators• Their main predators are snakes.

Naked mole rats lack a neurotransmitter called substance P that enables all mammals to feel pain. They feel almost no pain.

Mole rats also do not get cancer of any form and live extremely long- over 40 years. Because of this its genome has been fully mapped and is being studied.

It appears also that naked mole rats have ribosomes that produce extremely error-free proteins.

Mole rats live underground in a complex systems of burrows in arid African deserts.

The tunnel systems built by naked mole rats can stretch up to three to five kilometers (2–3 mi) in cumulative length.

Mole rats can move as fast backwards as they can move forwards- unique among mammals.

The rats lungs are very small and its blood has a very strong affinity for oxygen, increasing the efficiency of oxygen uptake.

It has a very low respiration and metabolic rate for an animal of its size, about 2/3 that of a similarly sized mouse, thus using oxygen minimally.

In long periods of hunger, such as a drought, its metabolic rate can be reduced by up to 25 percent.

They do not use homeostasis to regulate.Instead they are Thermoconformers. When hot they seek cooler areas that are deeper, when cold they cluster together

Food

• Naked Mole Rats are Radicivores- which means they feed on tubers and roots.

• The colony will feed on part of a tuber then block off the tunnel and allow the tuber to regenerate, thus providing themselves with a constant food supply.

• In a sense, they graze by rotation.

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