Peaceful queen succession observed in naked mole rats, challenging the species' bloody reputation

In a Science Advances study, researchers at the Salk Institute observed a rare peaceful transfer of power in a naked mole rat colony: after relocating the Amigos colony, the reigning queen Teré paused reproduction for almost a year, two of her daughters began reproducing in sequence, and Arwen ultimately became the new breeding queen by the end of 2025, showing that even highly eusocial mammals can exhibit flexible, nonviolent queen succession.