“An animal that eats me” — sounds weird, right? But actually, the animal on Earth that handles me with the most care is the one that eats me. Today’s story is about the naked mole rat.
The Origin of This Quote
The naked mole rat is a small mammal that lives underground in East Africa. Pink wrinkled skin, tiny eyes that barely see, and big front teeth. Most rodents live 2–3 years, but naked mole rats live over 30 years — roughly four times the lifespan you’d expect for their body size.
They also almost never get cancer, survive 18 minutes without oxygen, and feel very little pain. Researchers call them the “only mammal that seems not to age”, and they’re a major target of human longevity research.
In dark underground tunnels, they live in colonies of hundreds. Only one queen breeds, like ants or bees. This is called eusociality — and naked mole rats (with the related Damaraland mole rat) are the only mammals that do it. Truly a strange animal.
Mothers Feed Their Poop to Their Babies
Here’s where I come in. Naked mole rat mothers feed their own poop to their pups — a behavior called coprophagy. Not as a substitute for milk, but alongside milk.
Why feed poop? Because of gut bacteria. A pup’s gut starts essentially sterile. Eating the mother’s poop transfers her gut bacteria directly into the pup. The colony’s specialized diet of underground tubers needs specialized bacteria to digest, and milk alone won’t deliver them.
Even more wild: hormones travel with the bacteria. Studies show that when colony members eat the poop of a pregnant or nursing female, they enter caretaker mode themselves. Through poop, the message “we’re in caretaker season” spreads through the entire colony. I’m basically the colony’s group chat.
The Underground Colony Is Connected by Me
Naked mole rat colonies have dedicated toilet chambers. Poop is collected there, and serves a specific role. Workers sniff the chambers and side passages to read where the queen is, who’s nursing, whether intruders have come — through scent.
So for a naked mole rat, I’m food, I’m a baton of life, and I’m the communication network. No other animal on Earth uses me in this many roles at once.
Unchikun’s Take
The way I see it, in the world of the naked mole rat, I’m not waste — I’m life itself. Pups can’t grow on milk alone. Milk plus me builds the gut. The microbiome is inherited from mother to child, through me. When you stop and think about it, this is one of the most ancient and one of the most clever tricks in mammalian evolution.
In humans, research shows that mothers transfer gut bacteria to infants through breastmilk and even through kissing. Not as direct as the naked mole rat, but the rule “the microbiome is inherited from parent to child” is shared across mammals. Humans aren’t separate from this story.
One Thing You Can Do Today
Tomorrow morning when you go to the bathroom, just take a moment to observe me.
Naked mole rats read the state of their colony from my smell and taste — that’s observation taken to its limit. You don’t have to sniff or taste me, but just looking at shape, color, and amount already tells you a surprising amount about your meals, your stress, and your body.
If a naked mole rat’s poop is the colony’s group chat, your unchikun app is your body’s group chat with you. Log my visits daily, and you’ll start to govern your own body the way the queen governs hers.
Summary
I’m a longtime travel companion of the human race. In the naked mole rat world, I’m a baton of life and a communication network. Passed from mother to pup along with milk, I knit the colony together. The secret of an animal that lives over 30 years and barely ages is partly written in me. Tomorrow, take one second to look at me before flushing — that small habit will deepen our partnership.
