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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAfter Bloodbath, The National Zoo's Naked Mole-Rats Finally Choose Their Queen
DCist:At last, weve reached the conclusion of this scintillating drama: the National Zoos naked mole-rat colony has chosen its queen.
In case youve been living under a rock, let us catch you up: the Small Mammal House at the Smithsonian National Zoo is home to a colony of naked mole-rats, and for the last several months theyve been engaged in a quietbut brutalbattle for political supremacy. Naked mole-rats are one of just two eusocial mammalian species, which means they live much like colonies of bees or ants: one queen reigns supreme over everybody else, and challengers must fight and kill her for their own shot at rulership. Only the queen is allowed to reproduce, and her subjects are assigned roles as she sees fit (perhaps the only mole-rats with a better deal are the few lucky males she chooses as mating partners).
Back in October, keepers at the National Zoo told DCist they were pretty sure who the queen of this brood would be. One mole-rat was much larger than all the rest, and she was pushing and shoving her way to dominance without much obvious opposition from the others. But a human cant know the heart of a mole-rat, and spokesperson Devin Murphy assured us that there could be a challenger at any time. We wont know for sure until [one of the mole-rats] has babies. Thats the only way to tell, she said.
Well, the big day has finally arrived: just after 9 a.m. on Monday, zookeepers checking on the mole-rat colony discovered two tiny, pink, wrinkly nubbins nestled in one of the mole-rat chambers with some adults. Her majesty gave birth to two babies during the night. She has officially been crowned. (Take a gander at the lil guys on the zoos naked mole-rat cam).
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After Bloodbath, The National Zoo's Naked Mole-Rats Finally Choose Their Queen (Original Post)
brooklynite
Dec 2018
OP
You may have misunderstood my nomination for Queen of the blind Naked Mole Rats.
Marcuse
Dec 2018
#6
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)1. Don't keep us in suspense
Is it Kellyanne or Sarah?
Tommy_Carcetti
(43,440 posts)2. Why do I think that we'll see that Putin had a hand in this as well?
minoan
(95 posts)3. then Rick Scott has to be the king
He looks just like a naked mole rat
Marcuse
(7,875 posts)4. I don't really care. Do U?
mahatmakanejeeves
(59,863 posts)5. I do. I was about to post this in the DC forum. NT
Marcuse
(7,875 posts)6. You may have misunderstood my nomination for Queen of the blind Naked Mole Rats.
mahatmakanejeeves
(59,863 posts)7. Oh, I get it now. Sorry.
I'm having one of my "slow on the uptake" days. You can tell: it ends in a "y."
Marcuse
(7,875 posts)8. 🙂