So it is possible that there is a dual role of prolactin in mole rats: it not only stops them from breeding, but also makes them better carers to the colony’s young. For the queen to maintain her dominance throughout the colony takes some serious legwork. ‘We know she expends enormous amounts of energy patrolling the colony. We found that the queen is more than twice as active as the next most active animal in the colony and travelled three times the distance over the space of about eighteen months,’ Faulkes explained to me. Faulkes thinks this relentless royal tour is necessary to maintain
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