Learning about something new

I was cruising the internet this morning and ran across an article about ‘naked mole rats.’ Really. They have just ‘opened’ at the Knoxville Zoo and are making quite a hit, in part, evidently, because they are very active in their little underground tubes and boxes and therefore fun to watch. Not to mention ugly. (And also because a naked mole rat is a character on ‘Kim Possible’ – a Disney cartoon – appearing as nacho-eating rapper, “Rufus.” Who knew?)

Anyway, the interesting thing about them is that they are the only ‘eusocial’ mammals – they live in a colony and have a queen, who handles all the colony’s reproductive functions. Well, the female part of them anyway. Odd behavior for mammals. And a good new word: eusocial.

So that’s all I have today.

Sad, really.