RODENTS sometimes use tools, say scientists who have caught naked mole
rats using wood as a 鈥渕ask鈥� to avoid breathing fine dust.
The mole rats, Heterocephalus glaber, place a wood shaving or tuber
husk between their lips and protruding teeth. Paul Sherman of Cornell University
in Ithaca, New York, and his colleagues found that most mole rats do this when
gnawing on plastic, which breaks into fine dust. But they don鈥檛 bother when
gnawing materials which split into chunks. 鈥淭hey assess the material they are
going to gnaw on,鈥� says Sherman.
The researchers will report in next month鈥檚 Animal Cognitionthat the
wood shavings may stop fine dust from choking the animals. This would help them
in the wild, as the soil they inhabit in Kenya is very hard and powdery.
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