Rabbit Kings and Regenerating Mice: Discover 5 Bizarre Real-World Rodents

Rodents are a hugely successful group of mammals, common on every continent except Antarctica - they've even entered tradition and myth, represented by the Easter Bunny and cryptids like the jackalope. Let's take a look at some of the stranger rodents out there, including...

• The Rabbit King of Minorca
• The Toxic African Crested Rat
• The Regenerating African Spiny Mouse
• The Almost Alien Naked Mole-Rat
• Jackalopes and Wolpertingers (Victims of the Shope Papilloma Virus)

The Rabbit King of Minorca

In 2011, researchers announced the discovery of prehistoric remains from the mightiest rabbit ever known to have existed. Nuralagus rex was a chunky creature, weighing in at around 12kg and being roughly six times the size of the common European rabbit.

Nuralagus rex lived on the island of Minorca between three to five million years ago - and it was pretty odd for a rabbit. For one thing, it had a short and fairly rigid spine, meaning that it would have struggled to "hop." Analysis of their skulls suggests that the rabbit king had comparatively small eyes and ears - a major difference to modern rabbits and possibly the result of their isolated, predator-free island kingdom.

The rest of their skulls and teeth resemble those of their modern cousins, meaning that they probably had a normal rabbit's face on their otherwise chunky bodies!

The Toxic African Crested Rat

The African crested rat is a harmless looking creature. It's about the size of a rabbit with gray fur with some mild black and white stripes, it tends to be monogamous (or live in small family groups) and it has a herbivorous diet. What's less obvious is that the rat carries a toxic payload powerful enough to fell an elephant.

The rodent doesn't produce the poison itself, but instead collects it from the poison arrow tree. It chews on the plant (which the rat seems to be immune to) then applies poisoned spit to special hairs throughout its coat. When threatened, the rat makes these hairs stand on end... and any predator trying to take a bite receives a face-full of deadly toxins!

The Regenerating African Spiny Mouse

Did you know that there's a mouse with a comic book-style healing factor? The African spiny mouse can lose large amounts of skin or have holes punched through its ear... only to regenerate the damage without even leaving a scar.

The mouse relies on this ability to survive the attacks of predators, but maybe not in the way you'd think. Its first line of defense is a coat of sharp hairs that can put off an exploratory nibble... but if a predator persists and grasps the rodent, the determined rodent rips off strips of its own skin to escape.

While opening massive wounds on oneself would be a death sentence for most creatures, the biology of the spiny mouse makes this technique viable. It has very weak skin (the skin of a house mouse is around 20 times stronger) and heals really quickly - wounds can shrink by around 64% in a single day. The healing process also lays down collagen in a loose "basket weave" pattern rather than the normal parallel lines... meaning that the "scar tissue" is hard to distinguish from unwounded flesh.

This fast healing talent would be incredibly useful if we could apply it to human medicine - some researchers have even hinted that it could allow us to regenerate lost fingers!

The Almost Alien Naked Mole-Rat

Beneath the surface of Africa lives a creature that doesn't visibly age, resists cancer and can survive eighteen minutes of oxygen deprivation. They live in groups headed by a queen, they're cold-blooded... and they're rodents. Suffice to say, naked mole-rats are pretty weird.

These burrowing creatures live in colonies with a breeding "queen" and as many as 300 other mole-rats acting as workers. They organize their burrows into designated areas - including rooms like a nesting chamber, a "garbage" dump and a dedicated latrine. Researchers believe that some mole-rats in a colony become specialists, dedicating their time to maintaining a particular area or even focusing on transporting material around the burrow.

These burrows are are warm (which may explain why the mole-rats are cold-blooded) but can be poorly ventilated. Sometimes the oxygen levels drop to zero... which causes the mole-rats to enter a kind of "suspended-animation." In this state, the mole-rat switches away from using glucose (like a human) to using a reserve of fructose instead. Most mammals struggle when in low oxygen conditions, but fructose allows anerobic respiration (turning sugars to energy without using oxygen) for much longer than glucose!

Naked mole-rats are also blessed with a surprising lifespan - aging doesn't weaken them and they can live for nearly forty years. It's thought that they owe this longevity to a protein known as cGas, which is part of the immune system in humans. The naked mole-rat version of the protein is slightly different to that of ours... and as a result, it can promote the repair of damaged DNA. The protein has a major effect - researchers modified fruit-flies to produce this version and it added 10 days to their 40-50 day lifespan!

Jackalopes and Wolpertingers (Victims of the Shope Papilloma Virus)

There's a strange bit of rabbit folklore shared between Germany and America - the existence of strange, horned rabbits, respectively known as wolpertingers and jackalopes.

Now the fact that the folklore is shared between continents is curious enough, but there may be a biological root to the stories. The Shope papilloma virus can infect rabbits and produce strange keratinized growths - including ones resembling horns or tentacles. The end result really does look supernatural!

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Sources and Further Info:

• Giant Rabbit Fossil Found: Biggest Bunny Was "Roly-Poly"
• The Secret Social Lives of Giant Poisonous Rats
• Spiny mice defend themselves with self-flaying skin and fast healing factors
• Scientists Explore the Mysterious Lives and Longevity Superpowers of Naked Mole Rats
• Shope Papilloma Virus in Rabbits: What It Is and How To Keep Your Bunny Safe