Thanks! Do you know what tends to kill them then? I was under the impression that organisms usually die of disease, injury, cancer, transposon propagation or programmed aging. I notice I am confused, because keeping a naked mole rat in a safe environment should protect them from disease and injury, and transposons and programmed aging would do more damage over time. Do they die of cancer then, or am I missing something big about biology here?
Captive NMRs are kept in colonies, and can inflict injuries on each other.
They do get cancer at very low rates.
Animals that haven’t been specially reared to have had zero contact with pathogens can also harbor dormant diseases, and the current longest-lived NMR has not spent his whole life in a sterile environment.
Complex organisms may be at a constant low-level risk of deadly internal injuries (i.e. a random stroke).
Thanks! Do you know what tends to kill them then? I was under the impression that organisms usually die of disease, injury, cancer, transposon propagation or programmed aging. I notice I am confused, because keeping a naked mole rat in a safe environment should protect them from disease and injury, and transposons and programmed aging would do more damage over time. Do they die of cancer then, or am I missing something big about biology here?
Captive NMRs are kept in colonies, and can inflict injuries on each other.
They do get cancer at very low rates.
Animals that haven’t been specially reared to have had zero contact with pathogens can also harbor dormant diseases, and the current longest-lived NMR has not spent his whole life in a sterile environment.
Complex organisms may be at a constant low-level risk of deadly internal injuries (i.e. a random stroke).
Source
Very interesting; thank you!