Typical naked mole rats are about four inches long and weigh a little over an ounce. Queen naked mole rats can be much larger at around 1.8 ounces.

Despite their name, naked mole rats have a small amount of hair and little eyes that have some visual acuity. Luckily, they don’t need to use their eyesight at all to thrive. Instead, naked mole rats have thin, short legs that can move them forwards just as fast as they can backwards. In addition, their large teeth aid in digging.

Naked mole rats are found underground in parts of East Africa such as Kenya and Somalia.

Naked mole rats feed primarily on large tubers such as potatoes and yams. With how small the naked mole is, one big tuber can feed an entire colony for up to a year.

The breeding pair is the only naked mole rats able to reproduce in a colony. Simply the presence of a fertile queen can make non-reproductive females have small ovaries and underdeveloped reproductive systems. Once the male and queen have mated, the queen will give birth to one to six pups after carrying them for about three months. One queen usually has three litters each year.

Naked mole rats are neither moles or rats, but are instead more closely related to guinea pigs and porcupines.

Naked mole rats inhabit complex underground colonies of 20-300 rats. They are one of the only two mammals that live in hierarchical structures. Soldier mole rats defend the colony against outside mole rats or predators, worker mole rats extend the tunnels, and the queen is essentially the alpha female.

Some colonies can be as long as six football fields!