NPR · 13 hours ago

No coup, Just cuddles. a Naked Mole Rat Colony Changes Queens Peacefully

When a naked mole rat colony in San Diego faced overcrowding and upheaval, researchers braced for the species' typical brutal civil war as one queen aged out of fertility. Instead, the matriarch Queen Teré quietly stepped aside as her daughter Arwen ascended, continuing to guard and protect the colony even as she ceded reproductive power-a transition her caretakers described with visible wonder as completely unexpected. "As this was unfolding, we were just completely shocked," says researcher Shanes Abeywardena, noting that violent succession costs the colony injuries, deaths, and precious energy. Meanwhile, another colony across the country waged the classic bloody coup for over two years, revealing what scientists are beginning to understand: that even among creatures long studied, individual communities find their own paths between conflict and cooperation. Queen Teré, still spry at seven with decades ahead as "Queen Grandmother," suggests that survival sometimes favors not the fiercest battle, but the wisdom to lay down arms.