Parenting and Development
Nicola Kountoupes/University Photography
lhttp://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/99/8.19.99/mole-rats.html
Many naked mole-rats are involved in the care of pups following their birth. The queen generally gives birth to the pups in the tunnels of the burrow system, after the pups are born, they are cleaned and then brought to the nest by non-breeding members of the colony. Once in the nest the queen and breeding males do much of the rearing of the pups, with the queen being the only naked mole-rat to nurse the pups, but many other individuals assist in other roles (Lacey et al., 1991). When a naked mole rat makes an alarm call frequent and infrequent workers will carry the pups out of the nest into a safer area or the burrow, after the danger has passed they will carry the pups back into the nest (Jarvis, 1981).
At birth pups are approximately two grams, after which they grow very slowly,
and only reach the size of the smallest adults after at least a full year.
In two to three days the pups will imprint on the smell of the queen,
which is very
important because she does not gather the pups to nurse, but instead the pups
must go to her while she is laying on her back in the nest (Brett, 1991b).
Pups are fully weaned in one to two months, after which they become
frequent workers
(Jarvis, 1981). In captivity less than one third of the pups survive to weaning,
but in the wild more pups may survive (Brett, 1991b). Growth rates vary among
the pups a great deal, with only the fast growing pups likely to have any future
chance of breeding (Jarvis, 1981). Juvenile pups will engage in playful agonistic
behaviors similar to behaviors exhibited by adults, and unlike agonistic behaviors
in adults these encounters result in no injuries (Lacey et al., 1991).
This web site was completed in partial fulfillment of the requiremtns for Biology 323, Animal Behavior at Davidson College in the Spring Semester of 2003.