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Science AdvancesAnimal Behavior & CognitionPeer-reviewed journal article

Peaceful Queen Succession in the Naked Mole Rat

Shanes C. AbeywardenaiD, Alexandria M. Schraibman, Víctor D. CuevasiD, Janelle S. AyresiD

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Abstract

The eusocial naked mole rat exhibits an extreme reproductive skew involving a single queen that monopolizes breeding through behavioral dominance. When reproductive suppression of subordinates is lifted due to removal or death of the queen, subordinate females compete to assume the reproductive role, resulting in intense aggression and intracolony wars. This aggressive reproductive strategy is thought to confer several advantages under stable environmental conditions. However, reliance on a single reproductive female has the potential to create vulnerabilities when challenged with stressors or unstable environments. Thus, in some contexts, non-violent reproductive flexibility may be beneficial. Here, we report a longitudinal study of a captive naked mole rat colony identifying an alternative, mechanistically distinct mode of queen succession in response to external stressors that impair queen reproduction without social disturbance. Elevated colony density was sufficient to impair pup survival but did not alleviate reproductive suppression or trigger aggression in the colony. By contrast, relocating the colony to a new facility caused a long-term pause in the queens reproduction, leading to the sequential emergence of her daughters as additional breeders in the absence of fighting or aggression. This resulted in a transient period of peaceful plural breeding with one daughter and ultimately resulted in another daughter assuming the primary reproductive role for the colony. Together our findings support a model in which reproductive ascension is permissive and socially tolerated when the reigning queens reproductive function is impaired, thereby expanding the mechanistic framework of naked mole rat eusociality to include peaceful, fertility-based pathways of queen succession.

In-depth summary

Claude Opus 5.5 · xhigh effort · 8 Nov 2026 · from the full text of version 3 (11 Mar 2026) · CC BY 4.0

Relocating a captive naked mole rat colony paused the queen's breeding; two daughters then sequentially became breeders without aggression, ending in peaceful succession.

Naked mole rat queen succession is usually described as violent competition among subordinates after the queen is lost or removed, which leaves colonies dependent on a single breeder. A multi-year record of one captive colony shows that stressor-induced infertility in the queen, without social disruption, can allow tolerated plural breeding and nonviolent replacement of the queen.

Key results

  1. ShownA second daughter, Arwen, became the colony's sole breeder while the former queen Teré showed no further fertility. There was no dominance conflict: the only injury was one superficial bite wound, and Teré was reported to guard Arwen and her pups.

    Teré's last litter (September 9, 2024) was a single pup that died; Arwen's litters: five pups on January 11, 2025 (none survived), a resorbed pregnancy by April 11, 2025, two pups on October 5, 2025 after 12 animals were removed (both survived, first survivors since 2023), and a fourth pregnancy confirmed in December 2025; Teré's ultrasounds stayed negative. · Peaceful queen succession

  2. ShownBefore the succession, Teré's daughter Alexandria bred alongside her. Their pregnancies were asynchronous but partially overlapping, and there was no observed aggression. However, no pups from either breeder survived during this plural-breeding phase.

    Colony births 43 days apart (August 28 and October 10, 2023), shorter than the 70-90 day gestation; Alexandria's pregnancies were confirmed by ultrasound, her litters of 6 pups (December 30, 2023) and six pups (May 23, 2024) had no survivors, and she was euthanized May 29, 2024 for uterine torsion. · Emergence of a second reproductive female

  3. SuggestedAfter the colony moved to another facility with matched temperature, humidity, light cycle and husbandry, the queen stopped breeding for almost a year. No fighting or injuries were recorded during this period.

    Relocated from the EBS to the SAF vivarium on May 23, 2022; Teré's weight stayed stable and serial exams showed no pregnancy; her next birth, on April 9, 2023, was a single pup that did not survive; the authors observed no aggression, fighting or injuries in this period. · Reproductive disruption following relocation to…; Discussion

  4. SuggestedCrowding coincided with the death of all pups in the queen's litters, while she kept conceiving and no aggression or subordinate breeding appeared. Shrinking the group was followed by a temporary recovery in pup survival.

    At 39 animals, three litters of 6-7 pups (80-81 day intervals) had 100% mortality; removing 20 animals (to 19) gave two litters with 100% and 87.5% survival; at 31 animals, three litters of 2-4 pups again had 100% mortality; no subordinate pregnancies. · Elevated colony density impairs postnatal litter…; Discussion

  5. ShownUnder stable housing in the first year, the queen bred at regular intervals with high pup survival and no aggression in the colony. Weight gain before birth reliably flagged pregnancy.

    Colony founded July 17, 2019 with six animals; second litter of seven pups all survived (colony of 13); four further litters at 76-81 day intervals, 6-10 pups each with 100% survival except the fourth litter (a single pup that died). · Establishment of a reproductive baseline for the…

Methods, data and reproducibility

A longitudinal observational case study of one captive naked mole rat colony, followed from 2019 to 2025. Rising colony density and a move between facilities served as stressors, and colony splits were used to lower density. The authors tracked body weights, ultrasound-confirmed pregnancies, litter size, pup survival to one month, and aggression or injury records.

  • Amigos captive colony (Queen Teré, breeder Paquíto and their descendants), housed at the Salk Institute from July 17, 2019 · naked mole rat · n = 6 founders; colony size up to 39 animals
  • Reproductive records of litters from Teré, Alexandria and Arwen, with pups born and pups surviving past one month (Table 1) · naked mole rat · n = colony litters numbered up to litter 25
  • Longitudinal body weights of Teré and her daughters from the December 13, 2019 litter · naked mole rat · n = Teré plus four daughters
  • Ultrasound pregnancy examinations with fetal biometry, used to estimate gestational age · naked mole rat
  • Logs of injuries and aggressive behavior (Table 2) and of animals removed in colony splits (Supplemental Table 1) · naked mole rat · n = 20 removed June 21, 2021; 12 removed September 11, 2025
Methods & tools
Samsung HS60 ultrasound system, LA4-18BD linear transducer (4 to 18 MHz), Aquasonic 100 Ultrasound Transmission Gel, Ultrasound fetal biometry (embryonic vesicle diameter, biparietal diameter, crown-rump length), Serial body-weight monitoring, Colony split protocol for density reduction, Necropsy, 5- and 10-chamber plexiglass burrow-mimicking housing systems
Reproducibility gaps
No data repository, accession or analysis code is described. Per-animal reproductive, weight and injury records are reported only as tables and figures inside the manuscript.
Limitations (4)
  • All findings come from a single captive colony and rely on artificial perturbations, including a facility move that would not occur in the wild. Because captive animals cannot disperse, the density effects may reflect captivity rather than intrinsic biology. · stated by the authors
  • The authors cannot yet explain what makes a colony take the aggressive or the peaceful succession route. The natural conditions that would trigger peaceful succession in wild colonies remain untested. · stated by the authors
  • Causal claims rest on timing alone, with no replicate or control colonies and no hormone measurements. Relocation, the move back to EBS on October 26, 2023, and density changes overlap, so the effect of each stressor cannot be separated. · noted in this summary
  • Aggression was recorded from investigator and veterinary observation and injury logs, not systematic behavioral scoring. The founding litter is also described inconsistently: born May 8 vs May 18, 2019, with three vs four surviving females. · noted in this summary

Read this if you study eusociality, cooperative breeding or naked mole rat husbandry and want a detailed record of a queen being replaced without violence after stress left her infertile.

Citations
3
FWCI
22.53
Field percentile
top 1%

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