Breeding and husbandry of the blind mole rat Nannospalax ehrenbergi at the Zoology Department, Tel Aviv University

The Blind mole rat Nunnospalax ehrenbergi is a solitary and highly aggressive fossorial mammal. Little is known about its behaviour and until recently it had not been bred in captivity. At Tel Aviv University an artificial environment was developed which closely resembled the type of tunnel system that the species would dig in the wild, The system was made up of a series of Perspex tubes (54 mm inner diameter) that could accommodate one animal at a time, interspersed with Perspex boxes (43 cm × 22 cm × 13 cm high) containing 10–15 cm deep soil. The tunnel system was divided into two with a screw barrier and a pair of Blind mole rats was given the opportunity to develop their own territories for 34 months before the breeding season, thus becoming habituated to the enclosure and each other. Each animal covered the screw barrier with soil and scent marked the area until the breeding season when they began to dismantle the soil barrier until they could make contact with each other. This paper describes the management conditions and semi-natural tunnel system which enabled observation, maintenance and successful breeding of Blind mole rats in captivity. A policy of minimum disturbance and patience appeared to facilitate the successful breeding of this species.