How long do mole rats live for?

30 years
Naked mole rats (NMRs; Heterocephalus glaber) are the longest-living rodents known, with a maximum lifespan of 30 years–5 times longer than expected on the basis of body size.

What is one advantage of the naked mole-rats long life span?

In addition to their noted longevity, they are remarkably resistant to cancer. Naked mole rats also appear to remain spry and healthy even in the final years of their long lives, so they can potentially offer clues not only about longevity but also the overall maintenance of health.

How do mole rats die?

Naked mole rats generally don’t get many chronic diseases that become familiar to humans as they age, like diabetes or Alzheimer’s, Buffenstein said. In the wild, the animals might die by predator attack or from starvation, infection or lack of water, she said.

Are mole rats immortal?

A new study by scientists at Calico, a research firm under the umbrella of Google parent company Alphabet, have theorized that naked mole-rats also have this sort of biological immortality. Buffenstein has been studying naked mole rats for over 30 years and found that only 400 have died of natural causes.

What is mole rat queen?

As in some insect species, the queen is the only naked mole rat female to breed and bear young. Worker animals dig the burrows that the whole clan inhabits, using their prominent teeth and snouts. They also gather the roots and bulbs for the colony to eat. Other rats tend to the queen.

Why are mole rats naked?

Why are they “naked”? Native to the desert regions of East Africa, which can be pretty warm during the day, naked mole-rats live underground. If it does get cold at night, the little mammals just huddle together in a mole-rat pile and use each other’s body heat to keep warm.

Can mole rats extend life?

Living Like a Naked Mole-rat May Extend Longevity, Scientists Demonstrate. Because, they postulate, the lower body temperature and slower metabolism could significantly extend mouse longevity, based on the observation that metabolically slow naked mole-rats live eight times longer than similar rodents.

Can mole rats swim?

No sheath. With all these deviations, it’s no surprise that the naked mole rat’s sperm won’t be winning any races. Only between 1 and 15 percent of them can actually swim, and just 1 percent of these can swim quickly. The vast majority move at a slow crawl; they might even be the slowest sperm of any mammal.