This volume brings together more than a decade of information collected
in the field and lab on the naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber), a
northeast African mammal unique for its physical characteristics and
eusociality. Nearly blind and virtually hairless, naked mole-rats
inhabit large subterranean colonies in which only one female and her one
to three mates conceive offspring, while the young from previous litters
maintain and defend the group as do workers in colonies of the social
insects. In this first major treatise on naked mole-rats an
international group of researchers covers such topics as the evolution
of eusociality, phylogeny and systematics of the rodent family
Bathyergidae, population and behavioral ecology and genetics of naked
mole-rats in the field, vocal and nonvocal behaviors, social
organization and divisions of labor within colonies, and climatic,
social, and physiological factors affecting growth, reproduction, and
reproductive suppression. In addition to the editors, the contributors
are D. H. Abbott, M. W. Allard, N. C. Bennett, R. A. Brett, S. H.
Braude, B. Crespi, S. V. Edwards, C. G. Faulkes, L. M. George, R. L.
Honeycutt, E. A. Lacey, C. E. Liddell, E. McDaid, K. Nelson, K. M.
Noonan, J. O'Riain, J. W. Pepper, H. K. Reeve, and D. A. Schlitter.
Originally published in 1991.
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