I watched a documentary on the naked mole rat and thought to take notes if anyone considers using it as a serum (or if they get inflicted by it from the staff)
The mammal that sounds like a bird and acts like an insect colony. They are neither a mole nor a rat but are related closer to the guinea pig.
Naked mole rats are, well naked except for whiskers on their muzzles, tail, feet and head. They are very hardy animals and have an usually high tolerance to pain. Two large incisors are on the outside of their lips are used for digging tunnels and cutting roots. They have small eyes and ears, yet have very good hearing and touch and are rarely found above ground. They cannot regulate their body temperature, so in cooler weather they will huddle up to the queen, although under ground usually is consent.
They behave like ants or termites. One queen rules and is the only female allowed to breed and her orders are law. Nature grants the queen to develop extra invertebrates so she can give birth to more young which makes her twice as long as the workers and a queen can rule for 20 years. In another source it is found that a female taken from a colony can become a queen herself when paired with a male. It is believed the queen releases hormones to prevent others from breeding.
Soldiers defend the colony, they drive out intruders, including other mole rats that wish to join and insects such as scorpions. Only beetles that eat their dung are allowed to stay and will catch lifts on mole rats to go to their designated toilet. The largest and strongest are soldiers. Workers can work for hours, they dig tunnels to search for food such as roots and their favourite, sweet potato. They use their teeth as shovels and will work in a chain gang to kick the soil out of a hole in the surface. They also look after the young. In a year the whole colony would have moved location. They sleep usually during the day for a couple of hours at a time.
They communicate with bird like chirps, similar sounding to a chick. There are 18 different sounds and each with a meaning and because of their lack of fur, they do not suffer from parasites.
Their main diet is vegetables and roots, especially sweet potato. But they do not kill the potatoes, they will eat into it creating a cave then fill it up with soil to stop the plant from dying. This is so they can come back later to the same source without wasting it.
Their main predator is snakes. If one enters an unblocked entrance the soldiers will chirp an alert for the workers to flee. The stronger soldiers will bare their teeth and wait for an exposed flank before biting. If that doesn't work they will set about blocking the tunnels causing the snake to flee or be buried alive. Owls also prey on mole rats; sometimes one will venture out of the colony and makes their way to join another, this keeps genetic diversity of the species. Their grey backs act as camouflage at night while taking this daring root.
When stressed they grind their teeth, but nothing much else in know about their behaviour. When kept in captivity all of their behaviours can change to adapt so even with environment enrichment they may not be acting as true as they would if they were in the wild. This makes them hard to study correctly.
The Island of Dr. Moreau Quester Central