Naked mole-rats eat the poop of their queen for parenting cues
The scat contains the sex hormone estradiol, which turns regular mole-rats into caregivers
Dealing with poop is an unavoidable hazard of raising children, regardless of species. But for naked mole-rats, that wisdom is especially salient.
During pregnancy, the scat of a naked mole-rat queen — the only female in the colony that reproduces, giving birth to a few dozen pups each year — contains high levels of the sex hormone estradiol. When subordinate female naked mole-rats eat that poop, the estradiol they pick up cues them to snap into parenting mode and care for the queen’s offspring, researchers report the week of August 27 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.