More Fun Than Fun: The Unlikely Stardom of the Naked Mole Rat 03/03/2021
I knew about the naked mole rat (
Heterocephalus glaber) as a little curiosity in my field of research on social insects, the curiosity being that it is the only known eusocial (truly social) mammal, comparable in many ways to eusocial ants, bees and wasps. Imagine my surprise while browsing the internet when I came across a children’s book entitled
Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed by the American best-selling creator of children’s books, Mo Willems. In the story, one naked mole rat ‘Wilbur’ decides to be different and defy societal norms by wearing clothes, allowing the author to teach children about tolerating other people who may be different from us.