I’ve seen this claim about naked mole rats thrown around a bunch but it’s left me with the question of what naked mole rats do die of? If their mortality likelihood truly doesn’t increase, we’d expect there to be some very long-lived naked mole rats. Is the issue just we haven’t held them in captivity for long enough to see them die of natural causes? I vaguely remember reading somewhere that eventually they stop eating or die in other ways but can’t seem to find the reference now.
In the lab, the cause of death is usually hard to find; the main issue that shows up in necropsies, Buffenstein said, are mouth sores, indicating the animals weren’t eating, drinking or producing saliva well in their last few days and infection set in.
“We really don’t know what’s killing them at this point,” Buffenstein said.
I’ve seen this claim about naked mole rats thrown around a bunch but it’s left me with the question of what naked mole rats do die of? If their mortality likelihood truly doesn’t increase, we’d expect there to be some very long-lived naked mole rats. Is the issue just we haven’t held them in captivity for long enough to see them die of natural causes? I vaguely remember reading somewhere that eventually they stop eating or die in other ways but can’t seem to find the reference now.
From https://www.livescience.com/61568-naked-mole-rats-no-aging.html: