Not so, says Randy Morgan, surrogate mom to the 32 baldies in residence at the Cincinnati Zoo—one of a handful of zoos worldwide that house the little rodents. "They are the only mammal that lives colony-style, like insects," says Morgan, himself an entomologist. Indeed, the East African desert natives live underground in tunnel towns, like ants.
For entertainment, there's courting the queen rat. Since she doesn't see well, her suitors appeal mostly to her sense of smell. "To attract attention from the queen and to identify themselves as belonging to her colony," says Morgan, "the males roll in the communal urine and feces pile." Sounds a little like fraternity life.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
