Mary Bates, PhD

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Workaholic Naked Mole Rats

Photo: Meghan Murphy, Smithsonian's National Zoo, via Flickr. Distributed under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.

In the wild, naked mole rats dig a complex tunnel system, complete with chambers for different purposes, covering several hundred meters. It’s hard work, but they accomplish it together. So why do naked mole rats sometimes interfere with the work of their colony mates via a behavior scientists call “tail-tugging?”

Read my latest Animal Minds blog post: Workaholic Naked Mole Rats.