They Aren't Very Furry at All Trivia Quiz

Answer: Africa

Naked mole rats live in burrows under the dry areas of grasslands in east Africa, mostly in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia. The colonies can have between twenty to three hundred members, but the average size is around seventy-five.

Answer: Only one female and a couple of males can reproduce.

The one female that can reproduce is called the queen. Only one to three males can reproduce. The rest the colony are workers, which are sterile. The workers gather food, maintain the nests, and attack any enemies.

Answer: No

The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists naked mole rats as "Least Concern". There is a large, widespread population of them in the wild.

Answer: their feces

Naked mole rats are herbivores. They eat large tubers they find while digging their tunnels. One tuber can sometimes last for months or years. Because they only eat the inside of them, the outside can regenerate.

They have also been known to eat their feces at times. They eat their feces to get more nutrition from their already digested food. After the queen nurses her babies for a month, they are fed feces until they can eat solid food.

Answer: They have small eyes and very poor eyesight.

Since naked mole rats spend almost their whole lives underground in the dark, they have little use for their eyes and often have them closed. They use touch, smell and sound to help them locate things and move around.

Answer: cancer

Cancer has never been observed in a naked mole rat. There are a couple of reasons thought to cause this. One is that they have the gene p16 and the gene p27. Both of these genes help prevent cell division when a group of cells gets too large.

Answer: True

Naked mole rats have been known to live up to thirty years. There are many reasons why they can live for so long. For instance, they have the ability to reduce their metabolism during hard times, such as droughts.

Answer: snakes

Snakes, especially rufous beaked snakes, sometimes come into naked mole rat tunnels and cause trouble. The naked mole rats let out alarm calls when they find a snake. Larger workers, sometimes called soldiers, then come and defend the colony.

Answer: once a year

The queen naked mole rat has one litter a year. A litter can consist of twenty-eight pups, but the average size is eleven. Their gestation period is seventy to eighty days.

In captivity, naked mole rats have been known to have a litter every eighty days.

Answer: No

Although they appear hairless, naked mole rats have about a hundred fine hairs on their bodies. These hairs are like whiskers and help them feel what is around them. They also have some hairs between their toes that help them to dig.