Frankfurt/Main (dpa/lhe) - So far they lived behind the scenes in the Frankfurt Zoo, now the underground naked mole rats are visible to visitors with their own enclosure in the nocturnal animal house: Seven naked mole rats have moved into their newly designed display facility, a zoo spokeswoman reported on Wednesday . In order to be able to take a look into the realm of rodents, an approximately six square meter facility was equipped with a system of visible tubes and caves. The new facility was financed by the Zoo-Freunde Frankfurt, who reportedly provided more than 5700 euros.
Naked mole rats (Heterocephalus glaber) are about seven to eleven centimeters long, their wrinkled skin is almost hairless and mostly pink. Two large digging teeth and a few whiskers decorate the face, eyes and ears are tiny - the animals native to the semi-deserts of East Africa are therefore not the greatest beauties of the animal kingdom. However, the social life of the animals is not unexciting: in the naked mole rat colonies, only one queen reproduces with one to three males. The other colony members are not sexually active and are responsible for expanding the corridors or guarding the burrow. After a gestation period of about 70 days, a naked mole-rat queen gives birth to up to 28 young - four to five times a year. A colony can contain up to 300 moles.
"The life expectancy of naked mole rats is many times higher than that of other rodents, and they are less sensitive to pain," says zoo director Christina Geiger. Due to their extraordinary abilities, the rodents are interesting for different areas of research. "We will bring the naked mole rats out of hiding with other offers such as lectures, podcasts and events and bring them closer to our visitors."
