Naked Mole Rats Usually Duke It Out to Choose Their Next Queen. But These Unusual Rodents May Be Capable of More Peaceful Transitions of Power

In a laboratory experiment centered around a colony known as the Amigos, researchers observed a subordinate female take over reproduction without incident

Sarah Kuta | Daily Correspondent

April 21, 2026

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Naked mole rats have been a source of fascination for decades. These unusual-looking mammals are nearly hairless, with wrinkly, pink skin covering their small bodies. They also have massive front teeth and powerful jaws, which they use to dig extensive networks of underground tunnels in eastern Africa.

They can survive up to 18 minutes without oxygen, and they seem to prefer low-oxygen environments. They don’t seem to feel pain when exposed to acid or capsaicin, and they're highly resistant to cancer, a trait that helps them live much longer than other similarly sized rodents. And now, new research suggests, they may be more socially flexible than previously thought.

Under certain conditions, these rodents appear capable of a peaceful transfer of power, a finding that challenges the long-held assumption that naked mole rat queen succession is always violent and competitive. Researchers report their findings in a new paper published in the journal Science Advances.

Whether in the wild or in captivity, naked mole rats live in large colonies and maintain a strict division of labor, similar to ants, bees and termites. Each colony has just one breeding female, known as a queen, and dozens of male and female workers that care for the queen’s young, forage for food, maintain the tunnels and perform other important tasks.

The queen maintains control of breeding through social dominance. She actively suppresses ovulation among subordinate females—and quickly quashes any attempts at reproduction—through behavioral, pheromonal and, possibly, physiological mechanisms. If the queen dies or is removed, however, the colony quickly descends into chaos, with the previously subordinate females aggressively duking it out with one another to take her place.

Researchers wondered whether this outcome was inevitable—or if another, less violent path might be possible. To find out, they spent six years observing a naked mole rat colony, known as the Amigos, in a laboratory.

When the Amigos first arrived in July 2019, the group consisted of six animals: a queen named Teré, a male named Paquíto and their first litter of pups—three females, one male. As they settled into their new home, Teré and Paquíto continued to mate and reproduce, with Teré giving birth to numerous healthy litters at regular intervals.

Once the colony seemed healthy and stable, scientists introduced two environmental stressors, one at a time, that have been shown to destabilize reproduction in other rodents.

First, they increased the colony’s density by allowing the group to balloon in size to 39 animals. Teré continued to become pregnant and deliver litters, but all of her pups died shortly after birth. Though Teré’s reproductive performance seemed impaired, none of the other females attempted to usurp her power.

Next, the scientists relocated the Amigos to a new facility in May 2022. They hept the conditions exactly the same, including temperature, humidity, light and dark cycles and husbandry routines. However, after the transfer, Teré stopped reproducing for nearly a year. She did eventually start reproducing again, though many of her subsequent pups died.

Then, one of Teré’s daughters, Alexandria, started reproducing. At one point, Alexandria and Teré were pregnant at the same time—yet the researchers did not observe any fighting or aggression among the females in the colony.

Not long after giving birth to her second litter of pups—none of which survived—Alexandria’s health began to decline rapidly and researchers opted to humanely euthanize her. After Alexandria’s death, Teré gave birth to a single pup that also did not survive. Not long after, another subordinate female named Arwen—one of Teré’s daughters from the same litter as Alexandria—began reproducing.

Again, the researchers did not see any signs of social instability, behavioral escalation or colony-wide distress. Instead, they were surprised to observe Teré exhibiting “guarding” behavior of Arwen and her litter.

“Together, these observations indicate that following the decline of Queen Teré’s reproductive capacity and the loss of the intermediary breeder Alexandria, Arwen successfully assumed the reproductive role without eliciting aggression from the reigning queen or from other colony members,” they write in the paper.

The scientists say these results represent a previously hidden aspect of reproductive social dynamics among naked mole rats, which are the only known mammals that live in such highly organized societies. They seem to indicate that naked mole rats have “greater reproductive flexibility than previously appreciated,” which will undoubtedly open up new lines of inquiry for studying these bizarre creatures, study co-author Janelle Ayres, a molecular and systems physiologist at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, tells Scientific American’s Jeanna Bryner.

However, the researchers point out that they only observed this peaceful transition of power in captivity. It “remains to be determined whether this alternative strategy is used in natural environments,” Ayres tells El País’ Patricia Fernández de Lis.

Meanwhile, they’re still trying to figure out why the Amigos opted for the less combative path. One possibility is that “succession depends not only on social stability and reproductive competition, but also on a cost-benefit analysis,” Ayres tells El País.

“When the cost of conflict is too high,” she adds, “a peaceful transition may be favored.”

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Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.