Naked Mole-Rats

Naked Mole-Rats

Naked Mole-Rats
Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 4 to 8
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	9.6

Vocabulary

challenging words:

caste, intrusion, moles, relatively, sensory, confusion, despite, successful, society, maintain, certainly, naked, social, hence, environment, entire

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Naked Mole-Rats

¹     Naked mole-rats are certainly animals of massive confusion! Unlike what their name suggests, naked mole-rats are not entirely naked. Aside from their sensory whiskers around their heads and tails, naked mole rats have fine, pale-colored hair between their toes. Furthermore, despite the fact that their name is made up of two distinctive animals -- moles and rats, naked mole-rats are actually more closely related to porcupines and chinchillas than to moles and rats. No matter who naked mole-rats' close relatives are, all these animals are rodents.

²     Living in Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya of Africa, naked mole-rats feed on roots, tubers, and other underground plant parts. They measure about 3 inches long and weigh less than 3 ounces. Because they do not have an insulating layer of fat under their skin, their pinkish or yellowish skin appears wrinkly and their body temperature fluctuates with the temperature of their environment. To stay warm, naked mole-rats spend almost their entire life underground where the temperature remains relatively constant at about 82-89 degree Fahrenheit. They bask in tunnels near the surface when feeling cold and huddle in large groups when sleeping. Naked mole-rats have broad heads, but tiny eyes. They don't have external ears, and they don't have sweat glands.

³     As they are burrowing animals, naked mole-rats construct their homes as a web of complex tunnels. Naked mole-rats have such powerful jaws and strong teeth that they can dig through hard-packed soil at ease. To understand how vigorous naked mole-rats' jaws are, just consider this fact -- 25% of naked mole-rats' muscle mass is in their jaw closure! Like all rodents, naked mole-rats have four large incisor teeth that never stop growing. Hence, they don't have to worry about having worn teeth, so they can dig, dig, and dig all the time! Of course, having sturdy jaws and teeth are not the only two features that make naked mole-rats such excellent diggers. To avoid eating dirt, naked mole-rats put their teeth in front of their lips. Additionally, they use the hair between their toes as sweepers to whisk away dirt.

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