Naked Mole Rats: A Face Only a Mother Could Love | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. welcome to stuff you should know a. production of iHeart. Radio hey and welcome to the podcast I'm. Josh and there's Chuck and Jerry's here. too and this is stuff you should know. part of our ongoing amazing animals. Edition maybe the most robust. rhinocerous like sweet of all of our. sweets probably that are crime and. punish.

sure sure but I think everybody can get. behind you know sloths and elephants and. not everybody's like sure prison right. or crimes and clean up sure well that. was a tough. one but today we're adding to the animal. one and we're adding a good one Chuck. this is a great pick cuz thank you we're. talking about naked mole rats and. they're one of those things like um. narwhals where you're like heard of it I.

know everybody's into him and everything. but unlike narwhals when you do a little. investigating into them naked mol rats. are ridiculously interesting they are uh. and I think I mentioned this on an. episode but where I got this idea uh it. was long simmering because uh the great. Errol Morris documentary fast cheap and. out of control M which have you seen it. no uh it's a great documentary it's it's. been around for a long time and in that.

documentary he takes uh I think three uh. disperate professions gentlemen who. perform these professions and also uh. ties it into an old lion tamer guy from. a circus with like footage and telling. his story uh there's like a a robot. scientist a topiary Gardener the. aforementioned lion tamer from footage. and then this guy who is a naked mole. rat scientist oh yeah what's his name I.

don't remember his name I can picture. his face uh and looking at you know um. when that documentary was it was pretty. early on in kind of what we knew about. naked molat so he was probably on the on. the Leading Edge but Bing Edge not the. bleeding edge uh that's when I first. sort of discovered the naked mole rat. and fell in love with what might be the. ugliest animal on Earth for real for. real yeah I saw somewhere that um. National Geographic Des Des them as.

brator with. teeth oh man and apparently the guy who. first described them Edward Rupel back. in 1842 when he described him other. biologists were like well clearly repel. you're dumb because this has got to be a. baby of some sort of some other species. or these things are diseased they're not. their own thing and he said no really I. think they're their own thing and he. turned out to be right but that just. goes to show just how we weird looking.

they are that even biologists were like. what is this thing yeah like any naked. animal uh and there are a handful is. strange looking to people that are. accustomed to mammals with fur yeah uh I. should say mammals um but the naked. molat is I mean boy this thing is like a. a a only a mother could love is the. saying I think a face and body for sure. they all have the same mother pretty. much oh wow look at you yeah we'll get.

into that later but dropping a hint. let's talk a little bit about the. taxonomic classification of naked mole. rat sh we yeah uh take it away because. they used to be classified differently. but it's they finally settled on giving. them their own little space now right I. don't know that they settled on it I. think it's proposed and not everybody in. the naked mle rat research Community. agrees on it but but they are rodents. they're in the order rodentia they're in. the family ba.

beier I even practiced that that's so. frustrating to have practiced it it's a. tough out loud and still miffed it no I. think you got it Bethy Bethy erade yeah. I got it the second time but it should. have rolled off my tongue for as much as. I practiced it that never does so um all. of the family bade are are located in. sub Sahara in Africa yeah and there's a. bunch of different kinds of mole rats. it's just the naked mole rat is its own.

thing and it's so distinct in so many. different ways that like you were saying. some naked moat scientists are like. they're we just need to make their own. family because right now they're a. separate genus they're their own genus. heteros. heteros practice that one. too but they're so different from the. other members of the family that they're. like we should not just classify them as. their own genus and species we should. classify them as their own family this. one type of animal should be its own.

family not everybody's on board yeah but. I think everyone listening has a family. member that you know they think maybe. should be classified as as their own. family always naked buck teeth sure that. family member Rusty uncle uncle. Rusty uh like you mentioned they the. naked moats live throughout the Horn of. Africa uh generally in Kenya Ethiopia. and. Somalia and they are doing great there. are a lot of them this isn't one of.

those I feel like most of the animals we. cover have some sort of threatened uh. designation but they're they're killing. it and they're doing awesome there's. lots of them one reason why is because. the land that they live under is so Aid. that um it's not usually Disturbed for. crop land so they they don't get into. fights with Farmers typically which. would be a big problem for them because. they would eat all the farmers crops and. the farmers would kill them all um so. because they don't really dwell where.

humans tend to dwell that's a big Mark. in their favor from what I saw totally. uh they I mean hopefully you've looked. up a picture like pulled off to the side. of the road or something if you're. driving to see a picture of these things. so you have an idea of what we're. talking about uh if not do so uh because. you might think they look like maybe a. newborn guinea pig or something maybe I. mean that's being kind I guess and. that's the. adults yeah exactly uh but they did. diverge from uh guinea pigs they believe.

about 50 million years ago so they're. they're related in a way but they like. you said they really are their own thing. yeah and they're pretty much not related. to moles or rats it's their closest. relative is guinea pigs like you said. and one of the things that really makes. naked mole rats um special is that they. are. fossorial which is a type of animal that. lives underground pretty much all the. time they don't live under Underground. when it's hot out and then come out at.

night to feed or hunt they live. underground I'm sure plenty of them. spend their entire lives underground and. their lives are significant in in length. as we'll see but that's a that's a big. distinction because there's a lot of. animals that live underground but spend. time above ground too not naked mole. rats no they love it down there uh and. as we've covered in the what was the. biology episode I think yeah and we ALS. didn't we also do one on other cave. dwelling animals or was that that one I.

think it was that one all right either. one or two of those but we you know they. have some features that other animals. who live generally deep underground uh. for a lot of their lives have which is. not really useless eyes I mean they have. technically they have eyes uh they can. sense bright and dark but they're. basically blind uh and they don't have. ears really either they have you know. little tiny ear flaps if they have. anything at all mhm um uh they're about.

3 to 4 Ines long except for the queen. who can be a bit bigger we talk about. the queen cuz it's very very interesting. uh and then they have a little short. tail uh sort of a tapered tail and then. a little piggy snout but what's really. like when you look at a naked mole rat. the first thing you're going to notice. is they're naked and really wrinkly and. funny looking and then those Chompers up. front yeah because their teeth if you. look closely they come out of their face.

not their mouth yeah they can close. their mouth and still have their teeth. out yeah it's pretty cool it's an. adaptation that they came up with um. where they can use their teeth to dig. while their mouth is closed so they keep. dirt from getting in their mouths yeah. it's amazing and uh you duck up some. extra stuff which is pretty remarkable. about those teeth uh and we're going to. talk a little bit about the teeth. probably a lot about the teeth sure but. they're they basically function as a. sense organ scientists have found that.

the SoMo man I practiced that one too. somat three cortex that's not even a. hard one right uh which is involved in. the sense of touch is very very large. and about a third of it is dedicated to. those in sizers so they actually feel. through those teeth yeah they yeah like. you said it's a sense organ that's. really cool they also use them not only. to sense the world but also to like. carry stuff around they can use them. like needlenose pliers they can move. them independently in all sorts of. different weird directions.

there I don't know of any other animal. that has teeth as a sense organ it's. pretty cool no how about those jaws too. so because their teeth are so important. to them not just for eating but for. digging and creating their habitats and. for defense too um their. jaws I think. 25% of their entire muscle mass of their. body is in their jaws specifically in. the jaw muscle that M muscle if you make.

if you put three fingers upward on your. cheek so that um you're kind of making. that Scouts Honor thing sure the the. finger closest to you is uh just. touching your ear that outside of your. ear or where your ear touches your face. man I'm doing it and then you start. making a chewing sound or chewing um. motion do you feel how it's like your. cheek is pushing out against your. fingers beneath I do that's your m and. then do one other thing leave your.

fingers there don't move oh all right. but slide them up a little further to. your temple and then do the same thing. you feel that muscle moving yeah that's. the the headache uh button exactly. that's your M muscle as well so we have. them too but only about one% of our. muscle mass is invested in our Jaws a. quarter of their muscle mass is invested. in their jaw and specifically in the M. complex yeah it's amazing and that makes. those teeth basically like it's sort of. like a shovel chisel uh combination they.

can shovel they it is a shovel they have. tremendous power Orel. just oh Snoop Dogg has that uh trademark. so I think we get sued for that uh and. we'll be like hey go after the naked. mole rat. Snoop I shaved those sideburns years. ago uh so they use them you know they're. they're scraping they're always digging. they're always carrying dirt uh like you. mentioned they can close their little. lips because they don't want to get dirt. in their mouths uh and they're always.

just sort of at work uh digging tunnels. they're like Charles Bronson and the. greatest. gate right pretty much that's who. they've modeled their entire Society on. yeah and they do this in little uh like. like an assembly line yeah they will. gnaw into the Earth and they will pass. dirt back and eventually that dirt forms. what else a mole hill yeah I saw that. was kind of like a conveyor belt so. there's one mole one naked mole r at the. front doing all the digging and there's.

a bunch of mole rats following them that. are sweeping like a specific pile out. and as they're they're sweeping it. further and further back and as they're. moving backward they finally get to the. end and then there's a larger mole rat. there who kicking it outside forming. that mole hill you were talking about. and then when the when the mole rat. that's been sweeping it to the guy who's. kicking it out of the tunnel they climb. back over the people in front of them. and go to the front of the line again so. it is it's like the conveyor belt that's. just tunneling like boring through the.

Earth and this is really hard packed dry. dirt too it's it's not easy stuff to. chew through no they make uh they make. easier work out of it when things are a. little wetter but generally this dirt is. fairly dry like you said so it's pretty. tough uh and we mentioned that they're. hairless they do have some tiny tiny. little hairs here and there they have. some sensory hairs on their faces and. Tails and a little bit of hair between. their toes so they can uh sweep away. that dirt like you were talking about.

but if if you look at a naked mole rat I. mean the first thing that you're going. to say is that thing's naked and look at. those teeth and I imagine a large one. would be terrifying because they're. pretty small like we said just a few. inches yes um did you watch the. Smithsonian naked M rat. cams uh no but there's so much of that. in Fast jeap and out of control okay. it's amazing I hadn't I had not seen. them before and they are really cute. they're so studious and so serious about. the digging around and moving around.

that they're doing very hard pushing. this thing over there and they just. they're super cute when you when you. watch them and um apparently they're not. very aggressive there's only specific. instances where they show aggression but. for the most part they're pretty. peaceful even though to us they would. seem pretty rude because they climb over. one another in part because they are. very closely related so you know they're. fine with that but also because their. habitats are enormous but they still. live on top of each other like a naked.

mole rat tunnel system can be comprised. of miles of tunnel that spread out over. like five acres of land um and yet when. they're when they live together they. live in a really tight close-knit um. community that they're they literally. crawl on top of each other yeah they. crawl all over each other like it's. nothing like they're crawling over like. a rock or something and they are just as. good at going backwards is forwards and.

when we say that like we mean it they. they've they've done little races and. they found that naked moats can go. backwards just as fast as they can go. forwards and are just as coordinated. which isn't super coordinated but we're. talking naked moats here that's in a. smallish tunnel well I'm pretty. stimulated Chuck do you want to take a. break yeah let's take a break since. you're stimulated I got a D. [Music]. stem.

stuff you should. know Jerry sh. [Music]. stu stuff you should know should. [Music]. know I'm pretty dmed I'm feeling all.

right now you feeling good yeah but I'm. going to get stimulated again Chuck. because there's so much more like we. haven't even really tapped into the most. amazing stuff about naked mool rats like. all this is still this is neat this is. interesting but just wait everybody just. you wait should we talk about. respiration I think we. should well here's the deal they're. underground in these very tight spaces. and down there because there are so many. naked mole rats I don't think we said. but they live in uh colonies and we'll. get to the social structure because it's.

very very interesting uh among mammals. for sure and especially among rodents. but you know 70 to 200 to 300 naked mole. rats living together in these Tish. quarters even though it's spread out you. know they're they're small tunnels CU. they're small animals and there's not a. lot of oxygen down there um they can get. by on a startlingly low amount of oxygen. yeah in an environment that's also high. in carbon dioxide like you or I would. suffocate to death in a naked mole rat.

tunnel system I need animal would I. think yeah pretty much and the reason. why is because they they've become. adapted to that kind of environment a. low oxygen high carbon dioxide. environment and the way that they've. adapted is they. have they have evolved A system that. aside from naked mle rats has only been. found in plants that's right so oh keep. going so the fructose pump we all have.

fructose pumps but ours are all in our. guts the naked mole rats have a fructose. pump that uses a metabolic pathway that. takes fructose to be burned for energy. in their brains and the reason fructose. is so important is because it can be. burned anerobic you don't need oxygen to. power that that um system of energy. creation uh or unlocking energy I guess. from the fructose you can just do it. without oxygen so they lower the. metabolism enough that um they don't.

need much much oxygen they can get by on. the burning fructose until there's more. oxygen available again yeah it can live. in an atmosphere that is uh 20% oxygen. and 80% CO2 and they've been able to. survive for at least 5 hours with as. little as 5% oxygen 5% yeah you couldn't. do that I think 20% is like the Andes 5%. is not much at all no so um there's. another thing I said that they were.

generally peaceful they're generally. peaceful within the colony apparently. there's a behavior that Queens have. where they show up and they'll just. start shoving workers around did you see. that yeah and they're not quite sure. they be aggressive at times yeah but. it's mostly just the queen and she's. mostly shoving workers they thought. maybe they were it was because they were. being lazy but the the worker is much. more likely to be shoved while they're. working which just seems obnoxious maybe. it's just a little reminder you yeah. maybe but other than that they aren't.

very aggressive unless you're a naked. moat from another colony and from what I. saw if you stumble into a naked moat. colony and you're an outsider they will. kill you yeah it's not pretty um if. you're a predator as well uh they will. band together and stack on one another. and reveal those teeth uh if a if a. centipede or a snake or something comes. down there and uh uh yeah and like you.

said if if you if you're not a member of. the family and I guess we should go. ahead and say it like they're all the. same family right isn't there a lot of. incest going on yeah let's talk about. their incest shall we sure so they. inbreed um the the reason why is because. they have one Queen uh that's just part. of their their hierarchy their social. structure and um the queen has a very. limited number of of people to breed. with she basically says you you and you.

you're my breeding males everybody else. not only like don't breed with the queen. somehow mysteriously the queen keeps. worker males and worker females from. even even like maturing sexually yes. they have no idea how this is happening. because if you take a non-breeding. worker male and a non-breeding worker. female out of their colony within days. they develop like a adult mature. reproductive systems and can.

reproduce something going on a male. literally will they have tiny kind of. buried testicles but 5 days after. they're out of that hole those testicles. literally grow yeah you should see that. on fast motion it's really. funny please tell me that's not existent. I'll bet there's a gif out there. somewhere okay I haven't seen it though. uh yeah but it's it's weird it's this. suppression of uh of reproduce ility and. it's it's the queen it's just the queen.

and and all the other males have their. hands up and only if you get to go in. there and take care of business yeah so. very frequently they're her own. offspring that's just how it goes for a. couple of reasons one she makes so many. um she has so many litters over her. lifetime and then also they are um. they're they're very long lived I think. in captivity they live up to 30 years so. far I saw longer too I saw one that was. like close to 40 so we've only been.

studying them in captivity for about. 40ish years maybe 50 so we don't really. know what their actual like the upper. limit of their lifespan is we'll talk. about that later but a mouse if it's. lucky lives five years in captivity. these guys are living 30 40 years right. that's old yeah I saw the Queens um not. in captivity can it's usually like 18 to. 20 years. okay underground which is still.

remarkable yeah that's super remarkable. so during that time because she she's. creating so many litters and there's. Outsiders who come to the Colony get. killed she has to it's inevitable she's. she's um reproducing with her own kin. and so they found genetically Chuck that. the average um genetic similarity. between uh just any two members of a. colony is about. 0.5 in human terms terms 05 is what a. parent in their offspring has these are.

just brothers and sisters have 05. similarity yeah I think between um the. queen and her Offspring it's like. 08 and you're like what is all this. getting at the highest number you can. get to is 1.0 and that's for um. identical twins that came from the same. egg they're almost. genetically perfectly identical and the. the queen and her offspring are like at. 08 so they are super duper inbred yeah.

there I mean it's only them down there. what happens underground stays. underground you know what I'm saying I. guess. so uh the other cool thing or another. cool thing about them living underground. is that they're. basically coldblooded uh I think. scientifically technically they're. probably not but effectively they are. cold-blooded um mammals because they. don't have self-regulating body. temperature uh they regulate their body. temperature in in a few ways but they. basically call it behavioral uh.

regulation Thermo regulation uh they. will they will work harder sometimes to. get their you know to get the Heat going. they will stack themselves on one. another when it's colder uh and they. will go higher in the tunnel system. closer to the surface to feel that Sun's. heat uh but but still not go outside to. warm up uh when it's colder they will or. I'm sorry when it's warmer they will go. deeper and have more space in between. them and stuff like that and yet despite. all that despite not being able to. regulate their own temperature they.

still maintain about in the 80s. Fahrenheit that's how warm it is in in a. a naked mole rat tunnel system and the. humidity is like 50 to. 60% that's balmy it's balmy it's warm uh. and it's not balmy because it's full of. water because get this I know you know. this I'm talking to the people in. podcast land oh I know they don't drink. water they don't they don't uh say like. they try to seal off those tunnels uh. you know it's not probably not possible.

to completely seal them off but they. would flood very easily if they didn't. do as good a job as they do already sure. but it's not like they dig little water. wells uh and let them fill up and go lap. it up you know through those teeth they. don't drink water they get water from. what they eat uh we said they didn't go. out to to find food and stuff so you're. wondering like what are they eating like. little insects who stumble in there no. no they are eating uh roots and bulbs. and ryom and you know tubers like.

basically what what part of the plant is. underground they're eating that stuff. and that's also where they're getting. every bit of water they need yeah it's. pretty awesome uh again like they live. in the desert so this is where desert. plants store their Waters in like big. tubers and bulbs and typically when a. naked mole rat goes out and stumbles. into a tuber they'll um they'll start. bringing it back to the rest of the. colony very very good like that they. really look out for one another but once.

in a while they'll find a tuber that's. like 50 lbs that's just huge and there. no naked moat could do anything with. that so they eat it in situ and they do. it in such a way that they'll bore a. hole into this giant tuber eat the. inside flesh and then come back out and. they'll plug the hole with dirt and then. they'll let the tuber like regenerate. let the plant like regrow and then. they'll go back and do it again once the. plant's healthy again isn't that neat it.

it's amazing amazing and they're not. they're not doing this in any kind of uh. I don't think we mentioned like their. their sleep cycles they're not uh they. work together like very very well and. we'll talk about that structure more in. a minute but it's not like they get up. in the morning they don't know what. morning is they're underground yeah so. as far as anyone can tell they don't. have any kind of regular sleep cycle. going on they just they work when. they're supposed to work and they work. till they get tired and and then they. sleep yeah there's no morning.

underground is that Grim yeah but that's. a that's a song title mhm of some sort. of death metal band probably I think you. could make it the the titular song title. for the. album the naked mole rats sure that's. that's the name of the man I guess no I. mean like there is no morning. underground is the name of the first. single and the album and the album and. then in parenthesis it's says like. believe me or something like that.

sure uh are can we talk I mean we talked. about what they eat but we should also. talk about the other thing they. sometimes eat I'm kind of excited about. this take it away then they eat poop. they eat their own poop they eat their. own poop they eat others poop apparently. the adults of the colony will poop. directly into the mouths of the pups. when they need it when they want it man. and this all sounds gross and it is I. think even other types of rats are like. good God have you seen what our cousins.

do when we're not around uhhuh but. there's a there's a good reason for this. this is actually a big strategy they. have a a gut to um digest this these. really hard tubers this is not the kind. of like root vegetables you would get at. a grocery store this is wild subsaharan. Africa tubers that they're eating and. trying to digest and they can't possibly. digest it all the first time so when. they poop it's still Chuck full of food. so they don't waste it they just eat the. poop that's right and they have a hind.

gut uh cuz you know herbivores often. have things inside their body that are. going to help them digest this really. fibrous plant matter and they do have a. hind gut that is really good for that. but it's still not good enough and so. like you said they they eat they poop. they eat it again and that pretty much. takes care of it there's one other. really cool thing about it too well. there's two other cool things about. eating poop one when the adults poop. into the pups mouths mhm they're not. just feeding them they're also um. transferring gut microbiota which will.

help them uh protect them from disease. will help them digest stuff even better. um it's pretty neat and then they also. think we talked about um suppressing the. the reproductives of the other like the. other females the queen can somehow re. repress them they don't know how she's. doing that but they do think that the. reason why other non-worker females help. raise pups with no incentive whatsoever.

and with no reproductive organs or hor. hormones is that when they eat the. Queen's poop she passes just enough. estrogen to them to make them want to. take care of the pups that is astounding. it is uh and there's one more uh part to. the poop we mentioned if you come in and. you're a from another Colony you're in. big trouble um they also think that. feeding the poop and also occasionally. rolling in the poop is a way that they. can impart like a colony smell that. everyone's going to have yeah so.

everybody will smell the same so if. somebody shows up you're like you're not. Terry and then they're dead right. because they can tell from your smell. because their sense of smell is just. ridiculously acute that's basically what. they have smell touch and then hearing. somehow because they make more um. vocalizations than any other rodent on. the planet and yet they basically don't. have ears so I'm not sure how they do. that yeah I mean we can talk about that. a little bit they have um the queen has. a toilet song when she goes poo poo uh.

in her toilet chamber and uh I guess we. should also say that they they have. different chambers for different things. they have they have bathrooms and they. have bedrooms uh they have these sort of. Expressway super highways that are a. little larger where they're just. crawling all over each other back and. forth but they have different rooms and. one of them is a is a bathroom and she. sings a little toilet song when she goes. uh and they think that might be like hey. uh I just pooped is anyone going to come. in here and eat this or I gonna have to.

throw it at you right uh she also says. uh hey you three that I picked out. earlier I'm ready uh to have intercourse. with you so here here's my song for that. uh we mentioned those Predators there. are sounds for predator invasions uh and. then you know and this might lead us. into talking about the social structure. uh maybe after a break but they do have. little chirps uh that will signal their. social order which is still not quite. figured out but uh maybe we'll take a.

break there and talk about that let's do. it all right we'll be right. [Music]. back stuff you should know. [Music]. Jerry should should. [Music]. know. [Music].

so we mentioned early on that they are a. part of the uh beier GID is that right. yeah all right uh bath year GID group um. and they are generally pretty solitary. uh they're they may live with a few. others here and there but they don't do. what naked mol rats do which is you know. colonies that can get up and to the. hundreds um they the closest thing that.

you can compare a naked mole rat to is. like an ant colon yeah or bees like. they're like you find you sociality. they're usocial I think you said before. um you find that in the insect world not. in the mammal World apparently there's. only other one kind of mool rat that has. a you social um hierarchy but theirs is. even like it's just nothing compared to. the rigidity of the naked mole rats yeah. so use social means it is like you said. it is rigid it is very defined uh but.

they don't fully understand that. structure um in full they have some. little Clues I think some of the males. vary in size a little bit and I think. they think that the ones that are a. little bigger maybe higher up on the you. know social structure uh they most of. them are workers but some of them it. seems are specifically soldiers that. kind of are on the front lines when that. scorpion comes down yeah they have a. division of labor what else well I've.

got so there so the fact that they're. usocial is not intuitive because that no. one knew that there were such a thing as. mammals that were usocial and I found. out that they've only known that these. things were usocial for since like the. 80s or 90s and the way that they found. out was really astounding because some. of these early um naked molat. researchers were like where are why. aren't these these Moats pregnant like I. have not seen a pregnant female because.

they didn't know that it's just the. queen that's creating the litters right. and there was a a biologist named. Richard Alexander who described a. hypothetical usocial mammal species and. somebody who was a researcher named. Jennifer Jarvis who is a naked mole rat. researcher was like buddy you just. described naked mole rats and I think. you just solve this puzzle this mystery. that they're actually a usocial mammal. species and that's how we fig figured it. out just totally by chance yeah and you.

know we mentioned the queen a few times. the queen is obviously at the top of. that you social structure uh and much. like bees that we've talked about a lot. uh that that Queen runs the show uh. There is almost always only one Queen I. think in rare cases there can be a. couple of Queens but when it's time for. a new Queen to take the crown there is a. big uh fight uh the females sometimes. will kill each other to become Queen oh. yeah but it's it's a violent Affair to. become Queen um and they think that this.

is one of the reasons uh one of a few. reasons why the queen uh ends up larger. is because uh you may start out a little. larger if you're the one defeating the. other females uh and then this is. another remarkable naked mole rat fact. once you become Queen your body. literally gets longer your spine. lengthens yeah like I saw a picture I. think Ed added it in this article didn't. you have like the first litter Queen you.

know five litter Queen 10 lit Queen and. that like I think the 10 lit Queen her. spine is about at least one and a half. times the length of what it would have. been during her first litter that's how. significantly their body changes so that. they can have larger and larger litters. over time yeah it's it's it's remarkable. um and how many so they can have up to. like 10 lit total throughout their life.

I think it can get even even larger than. that I've seen and I I think that the. number of pups in a litter the record is. 27 oh wow yeah so they're having a lot. and they can have tons of lits over. their lifetime and then um as many as. you know 27 in a single litter they're. really reproducing there's a lot of. pressure on them to to produce you know. what I mean oh totally um you know we. mentioned that they almost never never. go outside of the uh Cave System and the.

tunnel system the very few times that. they've seen it happen is like they call. it like a mini migration where they will. see one maybe try to go to a different. Colony um I don't know if they figured. out why they would leave their colony. but periodically that will happen and. they will travel at night of course uh. because if they went out in the sun in. the desert during the day they would. probably fry like little sausages with. teeth like you said for sure brator so. they they also think that one of the.

main reasons that they would ever leave. the colony and go up top is to form a. new Colony kind of like a peaceful um I. guess a peaceful coup a bloodless coup. that actually leaves the existing Queen. in place CU you know bees do that they. when they swarm that's a bunch of bees. in a colony that's gotten overcrowded. going and forming their own colony. apparently as you so mammals that's what. niob moats do as well sometimes yeah.

yeah it's pretty interesting um and I. guess we should talk about the final. remarkable fact about naked moats is. that they don't age in the sense that we. think about aging right uh they get. older on the calendar but they have. shown a remarkable lack of like their. body and their their organs and like. their tissue and stuff like that showing.

signs of traditional aging yeah which is. I mean they get up to 30 like six times. the average age of a a mouse or the the. far end age of a mouse and they're just. not aging no inflammation their bones. don't deteriorate they just are ageless. and people researchers who started to. notice this they're like what is going. on and they have kind of zeroed in on. one particular um molecule called.

Huron and uh you might be familiar with. h hyaluronic acid which people love to. put in like their facial um moisturizers. and stuff like that because it's found. in skin well it's also found in naked. mole rat skin and it's found in Aces. they have 10 times the amount that. humans do and the the molecules of H. hyaluron um that they do have are like. five times larger in size yeah so they. have more bigger Huron.

molecules and they think that it's. possible because they're very resistant. to uh they found out at first they were. very resistant to tumors and cancer and. so they're like in the naked mle rat. does the is is that the secret to curing. cancer and I don't think that anyone is. like saying that they're right around. the corner from figuring that out but. they have gotten this high aluron and. they have put it uh in mice and that.

they cuz mice are very cancer prone. which is one reason we study mice when. we study cancer right but they have. found that these mice uh do much better. and they live longer and they uh it's. it's almost like an immediate shot of. Youth when they get this stuff yeah when. they transfer the hurin non synthes 2. gene into mice they really benefit from. it and then on the cancer front um when. they when they suppress the tumor. suppressing genes that are found in in. mammals in the naked mole rats they.

still don't get tumors but when they. suppress the gene that expresses hurin. on they start to get tumors so they've. pretty much zeroed in on Huron is some. sort of a anti-tumor agent and it's a. gooey sugar and they've shown that it it. when you remove it from a petri dish of. um naked molat cells the cells will goop. together but they won't stick together. as long as Huron in there yeah and it's. in it's uh it's in their like you said.

their connective tissue so it's one of. the reasons they have uh that that loose. kind of stretchy weird looking skin is. because of this high urin on and we went. over we drove right by one of the facts. that you duck up that's pretty amazing. is that in their is it their body can. move inside their skin without their. skin moving they can turn about halfway. around within their skin it's that loose. so like they're they could be doing that. in front of your face and you would not.

know it because their skin is just. static yeah you'd be like wow why is. their head over there all of a sudden. they still seem to be facing forward. doesn't make any sense yeah and that. skin comes in handy when they're. crawling around those tunnels and uh. slipping by each other and stuff like. that uh I mean there are reasons why. their skin is like that and it's it's. just remarkable these little guys yeah. and they think that that the anti-aging. anti- tumor traits that they've. developed over time are just a a.

byproduct of the actual adaptation which. is super loose skin um that's created by. cells that aren't allowed to stick. together yeah and they've also found out. that they don't experience pain like. other mammals do um and you would of. course the first thing you think of is. like pain is a good thing because that. tells you when you've got your hand on a. hot stove or what have you that's not. the first thing I think of it's not no I. think of that's great I don't like pain.

oh sure but it's a you know we have to. have pain so we know when we're. experiencing uh something that could. kill us granted uh but they have just. enough of a pain receptor to like keep. them from dying stupidly but not enough. to actually feel pain and I saw this one. um fact I guess from an experiment that. means like somebody actually did this. they said that their skin doesn't resp. respond to pain when you put acid or uh.

capsacin like what they put in uh like. pepper you know hot pepper stuff like in. pepper spray that's capsacin and their. skin doesn't react when you put that. stuff on their skin yeah or they don't. even if their Skin's showing signs of. burning they're just like what I I. didn't hear what you no their skin. literally doesn't respond to acid oh so. the skin itself doesn't the skin itself. doesn't okay but I get the impression. also that if you like hurt one I hate to. even talk about this but if you hurt one. it wouldn't even notice it because its. pain threshold is so high and the reason.

they think that this is the case is. because they their metabolism is so. fragile they're on such like a Razor's. Edge that they think that their nervous. system evolved to like you said just. give them enough pain signals to get by. but not enough to really require a lot. of extra energy they don't need that. kind of sensation to to survive does. that mean in some lab somewhere they. draw straws to see who has the th the. naked mole rat bet yeah I'll bet that's. a bummer day for you at the.

office would be for. me uh I think that's all the amazing. facts I'm looking over my. notes I don't think there's anything. else is there I don't think so uh the. only thing I would say is go to the. Smith Sony and Nicki mool rat cams as. soon as you can they're very cute to. watch yeah and watch Fast cheap and out. of control it's a great documentary uh. because he somehow manag manages to uh. Errol Morris does to to tie each of. these professions into a into a a theme.

a common theme that's really interesting. that guy's good and if you think about. it it's robots that this guy's making. that look like. insects uh it's plants that a guy is. shaping to look like animals wait are. you spoiling it right now no okay these. are just the jobs they have okay uh the. naked mole rat guy I'm trying to figure. how that figured in that way I can't. remember it's been a while but anyway. this guy's enthusiasm uh the scientist.

that they found is just very contagious. of how much he loves these naked morat I. could see it I mean you could do a lot. worse to pin your career to other that. animal as a biologist like they are just. coming up with some amazing stuff a. greed so since I mentioned amazing stuff. and Chuck said agreed that means. everybody it's time for listener. mail that's right uh but I'm going to. shout out that naked mole rat guy his. name is Ray. Mendes and uh he's he's pretty amazing.

nice all right so I'm going to call this. let me see I'm going to open up the. folder oh boy Ma you guys you don't know. what this means when Chuck opens up the. folder it gets. real. uh oh boy that's an old one I'm going to. read that one that might be out of date. okay I'll read uh oh okay this is fairly. recent uh Hoya remember we talked about. the Georgetown Hoya and we're like what. the heck is a hoya we heard from a few. HOAs and this was from uh Mark Mayer or.

Mark Meyer excuse me uh Hey guys first. time riter longtime listener graduate of. Georgetown U and uh I actually have some. knowledge to give back your answer to. the question what is a hoya is exactly. let me explain uh what I was taught was. that georgetown's nickname uh came from. the stone walls named after the. University's beautiful walls or the. football team's uh defense depending on. who you ask okay uh defense the good.

Jesuits that we are uh our cheer was the. Latin translation of what rocks Hoya. saxa and that was eventually shortened. to Hoya uh the mascot changed but the. nickname stuck so if a Georgetown if you. ask a Georgetown student what a hoya is. the standard tongue-and-cheek response. is something like correct or exactly uh. what is a hoya because the word Hoya. literally translates to. what what is Hoya is how I should have. read that now I understand why people.

don't like Georgetown graduates I never. knew but now I do uh Mark says this is. some 19th century who's on first type of. fun uh hope this helps thanks for the. quality entertainment that has gotten Le. through uh countless uh Mo drives and. runs I guess Mowing and Lawn sure all. right that's for Mark Meyer thanks a lot. Mark that was great knowledge you. imparted thank you very much I can't. wait till somebody asks me what's a hoya.

can't wait say exactly I can't wait uh. and if you want to be like Mark and send. us some info that we didn't know you can. put it in an email and send it off to. stuff podcast at iheartradio.com. stuff you should know is a production of. iHeart radio for more podcasts myart. radio visit the iHeart Radio app Apple. podcasts or wherever you listen to your. favorite shows.