(The Return of) Ignatz, by Sam Heldman
Friday, January 14, 2005
hot naked mole rat actionFor the fast few days, ever since seeing them at the zoo, I have been thinking a lot about naked mole rats.
You will be, too, after reading this article about them. They are mammals, yet are cold-blooded, and have social systems very much like those of certain bees or ants -- one "queen," who's the only female who gets to breed, and lots of workers. And they are funny looking, and they eat their own poo. Freaky little things.
posted by sam 10:50 AM2 comments
2 Comments:
oh yes, and they all sleep together in a big naked-mole-rat pile.
You will be happy to know that the naked mole rat can be kept as a pet. My friend, Dean, is lucky enough to have one named, "Yoda." Yoda has a single tuft of hair on the top of his head, but is otherwise hairless and feels like suede. NMRs must be rubbed down with oil weekly to keep their skin smooth...hmmm. Dean likes to feed him cheerios because the NMR fills his cheek pouches with the cheerios and through his translucent skin the stacks of circles are visible. For fun he feeds him foods of different shapes to see how the NMR looks once inflated....Hmmmm.
