The mole rats eat the mouse rat manure to get instructions for raising children

The droppings of the crown-haired mice contain genital hormones estradiol, which normally convert hairless mice into nurses.

Handling faeces is unavoidable when raising children, regardless of species. But for mole rats, it is especially noticeable.

During pregnancy, the feces of a raven-eyed rat - the only female mouse to reproduce in the herd, produce a few dozen pups each year - containing high levels of estradiol sex hormone . According to a report by researchers on August 27 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, when the mice rode down their lower female hairs, the estradiol hormones they received brought them into the regime. mother and take care of the children of princess mice.

The lower rats ate the pregnant pregnant mice 's droppings to receive their feeding instructions.

In the groups (scientific name Heterocephalus glaber) , female mice with lower status do not have ovaries and do not reproduce. They also do not experience pregnancy-induced hormonal changes that often lead to parenting, but they still take care of the mice's children.

The researchers gave the mice lower levels of pregnant mice without pregnant for nine days. One group of rats fed the estradiol supplemented stool, to simulate stool during pregnancy. The droppings of the sub-female mice that consumed the hormone-containing stool had increased levels of estradiol, suggesting that the feces could cause moderate hormonal changes. And the researchers found that the mole rats responded enthusiastically to the cries of the pups than those who did not receive the hormone.

Study co-author Kazutaka Mogi, a developmental biologist from Azabu University in Sagamihara, Japan, said that the stool may not be shared directly with the herd. Instead, some of the most time-consuming moles in the nest of the princess mouse will probably eat their droppings. Other animals in the herd may be exposed to estradiol by eating the droppings of the sub-mice that ate the droppings of the god mouse.