Rodent Spotlight: Naked Mole-Rat

During much of my research into the fascinating world of rodents, I have seen many spectacular specimens; however, there is one rodent in particular that seems entirely separated from his cousins in form. The naked mole-rat has to be--without a doubt--the ugliest rodent I have ever seen in my life. I actually have difficulty looking at them, and I have heard that many other people feel similarly. Some of the pictures almost make the creature look like it is the rotting corpse of another rodent. Talk about horrifying!

Supreme ugliness aside, I did find that the naked mole-rat had some very unusual aspects that made me double-take a few times. Firstly, they feel no pain. I'm not joking. They do not feel any pain at all. That's just... weird! Can you imagine going through life without feeling any pain? I sure can't.

Another odd thing about them that is totally off the rodent charts is their longevity. A normal rat lives about one full year. A naked mole-rat lives a whopping thirty-one years! On top of that, they are almost entirely impervious to diseases and even cancer. Incredible! Rodents--as a whole--are not known for their ability to live very long.

Wait! I'm not done surprising you! The naked mole-rat are burrowers and usually live underground in colonies of about 20 to 300 individuals, but that isn't the weird part. True, that IS a big colony, but many rodents live underground. The weird thing is that they operate a lot like bees. They have the queen mole-rat who yells out the orders while the worker mole-rats serve her with unwavering loyalty. They don't come up for air very often either. Too much carbon dioxide? No problem! These guys hardly do any breathing to begin with. They don't do a lot of seeing either as they are almost entirely blind.

All right. Now, for fiction. Congratulations, Mr. Mole-Rat. Despite your horrible ugliness, you exist within two works that I was able to track down. In the Disney show "Kim Possible," there was a naked mole-rat named Rufus who was the pet of the character Ron. He was surprisingly cute, for a mole-rat, but that was likely because he was drawn somewhat unrealistically. Nothing wrong with that. We will also ignore the fact that naked mole-rats are not recommended as pets. Rufus was a good little agent and quite agile and sneaky. They even made a very cool rap for him aptly called "The Naked Mole Rap." Clever! I really enjoyed it!

My very first introduction to the species was in one of my favorite episodes of "As Told By Ginger." Yes, I know this is primarily a girl's show. I loved it, and I am not ashamed to admit it. In the episode called, "Family Therapy," Carl--who is usually quite happy to be dealing in revolting things--finds that he has a phobia of naked mole-rats. He cannot even bring himself to look at one. Quite a charming little plot-line, and I encourage anyone who is interested to see how it resolves on YouTube. In this episode, the rodent was presented in its realistic form which would account for Carl's fear--this coupled with the fact the creature crawled up his pant leg uninvited.

I am happy to say that I did write a story about a naked mole-rat--just recently too. It was called "Three Rats," and one of those three rats was the rodent in question. I painted him as a dreadfully hideous creature but with a wonderful heart which meant more than anything else. I believe that this is a good way to portray him, but do not dismiss the possibility of an evil mole-rat. There is something to be said for how "Dick Tracy" portrayed villains. The uglier they are, the meaner they can be. Still, this is one creature with potential, and I believe it has--by now--been appropriately recognized.

Thank you for reading this blog. If you enjoyed it, you can comment below, or you can email me at tooie@tooiekangaroo.com. Egad!