Scientific name:
Heterocephalus glaber

Natural spread:
Africa

in the eyes of many people is a very ugly animal the bare-lint surely. The fur this underground living Grabnagers is fully re-educated until on few bristles and Tasthaare. The wizened, sallow skin, the standing out Nagezähne, the tiny looking little with the thick, fleshy eyelids, and that reinforces only as holes of trained outer ears still the repelling impression.

The bare-lint is the single representative of its type. With a torso-length of 8-9 cm and a tail-length of 3-4 cm, it is the smallest type among the sand-diggers.

Spread The bare-lint occurs in East-Africa of Somaliland until North-Kenya.

Way of life The bare-lint lives in colonies, that can include until one-hundred animals. its holes are very complicated and often very extensive. it pushes the loose-dug earth to the exit of its building site with the head, as a bulldozer. There, it then hurls it with the hind legs outside. This way, "miniature-volcanos", that can become 2-3 m high and clearly betray the presence this Wühlers, are built. The bare-lint finds its food during its grave-activity: Roots of trees and trees, furthermore insects and their larvae.

The sovereign of the construction is one single queen, who always gathers several Begatter about itself, and "guards" the colony. they patroulliert in regular distances all walks, with what it worker pisakt, who doesn't work sufficiently well. Particularly with the females, an interesting effect has this: Through the duration-stress, the ovaries of the animals don't come to the maturity - it remains sterile. Only when the queen is dead, some females get the sexually mature and fight itself mutually until only one queen remains again.