Wild Wednesday: What to know about the Tulsa Zoo's naked mole rats

The Tulsa Zoo has a colony of nearly 30 naked mole rats. The mammals are native to Africa and live almost entirely underground. The zoo has created a similar environment in the WildLife Trek Life in the Desert building for its naked mole rats. Despite their name, these mammals are more closely related to porcupines, guinea pigs, and chinchillas, not rats or moles. I spoke with Zookeeper Deryn Martinez who shared some other fun facts about naked mole rats for Wild Wednesday.

Q: Where do naked mole rats live?

A: They live underground in the tunnel systems, so they can make tunnels up to one and a half inches in diameter and up to two and a half miles long. They are mostly blind, so smell is how they communicate with each other and how they sense invaders in the colony.

Q: How does the colony system work?

A: There is the queen, she is the only one who breeds and then they have worker-naked mole rats that will dig tunnels. They work in an assembly line-type style, so you have one that will dig and then you have others behind that will trail the dirt out.

Q: How is the queen decided?

A: "The most dominant females will fight for the queen, so our current queen is always defending her reign. We check on the health and social dynamic of the colony daily to see if any naked mole rats are fighting, or if one is being shunned by the others."

Q: What do zookeepers do to care for the naked mole rats?

A: "We feed them, we clean their potty chamber every day, we take the shavings out, we will take out old food every day and replace it with new food. Our naked mole rats eat fruits and vegetables like carrots, sweet potatoes, and apples. Some are even fed baby food, one that we have right now, his teeth are just growing really fast so we want to make sure that he can still eat.

Q: What is their exhibit environment like at the zoo?

A: They are essentially cold-blooded, they cannot regulate their body temperature, so you will notice it is really hot and humid back there. The tunnels are how they get around like up and down and then we have the shavings so that they can dig. We do give them enrichment in the form of sticks, so we will just take trees, we will cut them up, and they can chew on that. It helps their teeth, too.

To plan your next visit to see the naked mole rats visit the Tulsa Zoo's website.