Northeast African Mole Rat Skull Replica

Description

Northeast African mole rat skull replica measures 1.7 x 1.2 x 0.9 inches. The Tachyoryctes splendens skull is a museum-quality polyurethane resin cast from California Academy of Sciences specimen. 2-part skull (separate cranium and mandible). 1:1 scale. Made in USA.

The Northeast African mole rat lives in Ethiopia, Somalia, and northwest Kenya.

Subtropical and tropical moist forests serve as their natural habitat. This animal also inhabits dry savanna, high-altitude shrubland, and grassland. It lives a solitary existence underground. The female produces a small litter of pups twice a year in the two rainy seasons.

The Northeast African mole rat uses their bulging teeth, nose and the top of their head to dig channels underground where they sleep, give birth and escape from predators.

Sometimes areas where they have dug their tunnels flood during the rainy seasons. The moles can swim for two minutes or more. It can also walk over ground for up to 260 feet at 23 feet per minute. The animal then digs a new burrow.

The Northeast African mole rat maintains a strictly herbivorous diet. They feed on the roots, rhizomes, bulbs, and tubers of plants and grasses.

They use their sharp teeth to dig through the soil to locate these buried food sources. When they find a plant, they often eat the lower stems. In regions with farming, they regularly consume agricultural crop tubes like sweet potatoes and cassava. This eating habit frequently kills plants and can cause severe yield losses for local farmers.

Scientific Classification

• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Chordata
• Class: Mammalia
• Order: Rodentia
• Family: Spalacidae
• Genus: Tachyoryctes
• Species: T. splendens
• Binomial name: Tachyoryctes splendens
• Conservation status: Least concern

Zeek, the Northeast African mole rat skull replica, is going on the Seattle Great Wheel today and boy, oh boy is she ever excited.

Cloudy, the slender-tailed cloud rat skull replica, is feeling naughty today and is going to rock the carriage of the Great Wheel today. He gets so delighted to hear his wife scream in terror.

Airplane, the plains pocket gopher skull replica, thinks Cloudy is a jerk for doing that to his poor wife.

Digger, the Eastern mole skull replica, is mad at Cloudy for doing that to his wife and he just let the air out of all his tires in the parking lot and has hired a limousine to take Mrs. Cloudy home.