Biology of the silvery mole-rat (Heliophobius argenteocinereus). Why study a neglected subterranean rodent species?

Abstract

African mole-rats (Bathyergidae, Rodentia) have become the most studied African rodents within the last two decades. Due to a number of studies covering a broad range of topics, many aspects of the biology of some bathyergids are currently better-known than those of laboratory or common Eurasian or American wild rodents. Within the family Bathyergidae, members of three genera (Bathyergus, Georychus, and Heliophobius) are solitary;members of three other genera (Heterocephalus, Fukomys and Cryptomys) are highly social or even eusocial (cf. Jarvis et al. 1994; Burda et al. 2000). Regarding the divergence of social systems and occurrence of eusociality, attention has focused almost exclusively on the social mole-rats. Among the solitary bathyergids, the silvery mole-rat Heliophobius (monotypic genus with one recognised species H. argenteocinereus) has remained the least known taxon, in spite of the fact that H. argenteocinereus is among the most widely distributed bathyergid species occurring in southernKenya,Tanzania, southeastD.R.Congo, eastern Zambia, Malawi, and northern Mozambique (Bennett and Faulkes 2000; Burda 2001).