Do you agree that Naked Mole Rats are beautiful? Does it irk you to no end when you hear someone state that they are ugly? Does it make you mad when the MSM, oblivious, ignorant and insensitive, repeats that standard denialists’ trope? Are you sick-and-tired of the “he-said-she-said” journalism that just HAS to, every time, quote some anti-naked-mole-rat bigot whenever these lovely animals are mentioned? Are you aware that a Heterocephalus glaber is not allowed to run for office in 27 states of the USA? These days, you cannot even slander atheists in a political speech any more without paying the price at the polls, yet it is deemed perfectly normal to crack jokes at the poor defenseless rodent! Why? Just because it is hairless, i.e., DIFFERENT than most of us!
No, my friends! It is time to stand up to these naked mole-rattists! Join the Facebook group and report all the ugly slurs to the rest of the group members, so we can incur the wrath of the Internets on those who still harbor the “old time” resentments toward this beautiful cousin of ours.
And just because they are blind does not mean they do not have eyes or cannot detect light. While the image-processing structures are greatly diminished, their circadian photoreception is intact. And, when monitored one-by-one (i.e., not in a colony setting the way Paul Sherman initially and erronoeusly reported), some individuals display circadian rhythms in activity and body temperature. The strongest, clearest rhythms are exhibited by the disperser morphs – those males who leave the colony and travel some ways trying to find and join another colony elsewhere.