The naked mole rat (Heterocephalus glaber), also known as the sand puppy, or desert mole rat is a burrowing rodent native to parts of East Africa and the only species currently classified in genus Heterocephalus. It is notable for its eusocial lifestyle, nearly unique among mammals (only the Damaraland mole rat shares the trait), and for a highly unusual set of physical traits that enables it to thrive in a harsh, underground environment; including a lack of pain sensation in its skin, and a nearly cold-blooded metabolism…
The skin of naked mole rats lacks a key neurotransmitter called Substance P that is responsible in mammals for sending pain signals to the central nervous system. When naked mole rats are exposed to acid or capsaicin, they feel no pain. When injected with Substance P, however, the pain signaling works as it does in other mammals, but only with capsaicin and not with the acids. This is proposed to be adaptation to the animal living in high levels of carbon dioxide due to poorly ventilated living spaces, which would cause acid to build up in their body tissues…
They have a complex social structure in which only one female (the queen) and one to three males reproduce, while the rest of the members of the colony function as workers. As in certain bee species, the workers are divided along a continuum of different worker-caste behaviors instead of discrete groups. Some function primarily as tunnellers, expanding the large network of tunnels within the burrow system, and some primarily as soldiers, protecting the group from outside predators.
This eusocial organisation social structure, similar to that found in ants, termites, and some bees and wasps, is very rare among mammals. The Damaraland Mole Rat (Coetomys damarensis) is the only other eusocial mammal currently known.
The relationships between the queen and the breeding males may last for many years. A behaviour called reproductive suppression is believed to be the reason why the other females do not reproduce, meaning that the infertility in the working females is only temporary, and not genetic. Queens live from 13 to 18 years, and are extremely hostile to other females behaving like queens, or producing hormones for becoming queens. When the queen dies, another female takes her place, sometimes after a violent struggle with her competitors.
If it has no pain sensors in its skin, why doesn’t it continually irreparably injure body parts like diabetic people?
(that is to say, very bad, not well-managed diabetes.)
Southern Ohio? One of the worse illegal animal fighting states, fer sure.
“Ohio has been the home to some of the nation’s most notorious animal fighting operations, and has seen other crimes associated with these cruel and degrading spectacles. We need strong penalties to stop criminals from staging animal fights in our state,” said Dean Vickers, Ohio state director for The Humane Society of the United States.
Attorney General Dann, who received an award from The HSUS earlier this year for breaking up a major dogfighting ring in Dayton, stated, “I enthusiastically support this legislation and urge the General Assembly to act quickly to increase the penalties for what can only be termed ‘barbaric’ activities. It’s time that the severity of the punishment reflects the absolute inhumanity of cockfighting and dogfighting.”
