Kidnapping pups, fighting for the throne, what is happening in the naked mole rat empire?

Naked mole rats are the perfect partners for hairless cats. Putting the two together will make us experience an inexplicable sense of joy, as if a hairless version of "Tom and Jerry" is about to be born.

Most rodents are not very popular, and the appearance of naked mole rats is even more unpresentable, but this animal has extremely high scientific research value because it is born with "anti-cancer" properties. This is not to say that naked mole rats will not get cancer, but the unique body environment of naked mole rats can inhibit the development of cancer. That is to say, even if a malignant tumor appears in the body of a naked mole rat, it is difficult to grow, let alone spread. As for how the body of a naked mole rat inhibits malignant tumors, this still needs further research by scientists. Naked mole rats not only have "anti-cancer" properties, but also have strong anti-aging abilities. This is actually very interesting. Naked mole rats are born wrinkled and old, but they are resistant to aging. This really makes it difficult for us to comment.

Anti-cancer and anti-aging are the values ​​of naked mole rats in the field of life sciences, and in the field of animal research, naked mole rats also have unique value.

Naked mole rats are rare "true social" animals among mammals. What are true social animals? Simply put, true social animals are animals with a highly social organization. This concept is a bit vague. How highly socialized is this? Are lions considered animals with a highly social organization? Not really. In biology, to meet the characteristics of a highly social organization, at least three conditions must be met.

First, there must be a division of labor in reproduction within the organization, that is, there must be a class within the organization that is specifically responsible for reproducing offspring, while other classes do not need to and do not have the right to reproduce offspring.

Second, there must be generational overlap within the organization, which means there must be at least two generations of mature individuals within the organization.

Third, there must be a characteristic of cooperation in caring for immature individuals within the organization, that is, someone within the organization will take care of the offspring of other individuals.

In nature, there are very few eusocial animals that meet the above three points. The only few are insects, such as bees and ants, and naked mole rats are extremely rare eusocial mammals. A naked mole rat colony is composed of about 300 naked mole rats, and the only ruler in this group is the naked mole rat queen, who is also the only breeder of the entire group. Although the naked mole rat queen is the only breeder in the group like the queen ant or queen bee, the difference is that the throne of the naked mole rat queen is not innate and is not permanent.

At the beginning, the naked mole rat queen is not much different from other female naked mole rats. It needs to gradually accumulate its own followers in the group. Of course, these followers are all males.

When a female naked mole rat gathers enough male followers, it will challenge the throne, and after winning, it will become the new queen. Interestingly, although the throne of naked mole rats is acquired through struggle, in a naked mole rat group, the queen is always the one with the strongest immune system, and other naked mole rats also have immune systems that match their status. Biologists believe that it is because of having a good body that one can achieve a higher status in the struggle, and thus the interesting phenomenon that status is proportional to immunity.

The naked mole rat queen has a strong immune system and is almost immune to any disease. At the same time, its strong anti-aging ability prevents it from dying of aging, but this also lays the groundwork for its tragic ending.

Because as long as the lifespan is long enough, there will eventually be a usurper, so almost all naked mole rat queens are killed by the later usurpers. When a naked mole rat queen seizes the throne by launching a coup, its road to conquest does not stop because it will continue to launch aggressive wars against other naked mole rat groups. In fact, launching aggressive wars against other groups is also one of the characteristics of all eusocial animals. Interestingly, naked mole rat queens will kidnap the cubs of hostile forces in the process of waging war.

The naked mole rat queen kidnaps the offspring of a hostile force not to kill them or for ransom, but to turn them against her.

The queen of naked mole rats feeds her kidnapped pups with her own feces, which contain special hormones. The pups that eat these feces will be immediately instigated to rebel, and soon join the war of aggression against their "motherland". In human society, betrayers often do not have a good end, and will not be reused by new forces, but it is different in the empire of naked mole rats. As long as these individuals who have been instigated are strong enough, they can also gather a large number of followers and join the ranks of those fighting for the throne. What does this show? This shows that there is only one thing that is most important, that is, to make oneself strong enough. As long as one is strong, no matter what environment one is in, there is a chance to turn things around.

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