Fun Facts about Naked Mole Rats! NMRs in the news!

Wild and Weird: Naked Mole Rats Handsome? No. Cancer-free? Yes.

Naked mole rats win no beauty contests. With their pale, pruny pelts, buckteeth and tiny, beady eyes, they’re cute to few and cuddly to none but each other. They have strange biology, too -- feeling little pain in their skin and dwelling in smelly, underground colonies like insects. Plus, young naked mole rats eat nothing but the feces of adults. The most intriguing thing about the mole rats, though, may be longevity: “Old Man,” the most ancient naked mole rat known to humankind, died last November at the ripe old age of 32. Naked mole rats routinely live almost 10 times longer than their above-ground cousins.

One reason naked mole rats enjoy such long lives? They've never been known to get cancer -- in contrast with mice, 70 percent of whom perish from the disease at just a few years of age. In fact, naked mole rats may prove as valuable as mice in finding a cure for cancer. That beats winning a beauty contest any day.

Read more on this intriguing species in The Washington Post.

Bookmark the Zoo's "Events Calendar"...not to miss in March events!

Wondering what is happening at the Zoo? Be sure to bookmark our events calendar or save in your favorites! It's the easiest way to check what's going on at the zoo "at a glance."

NOT TO MISS IN MARCH:
March 21-25, Monday - Friday
Spring Break Give-A-Way Days - follow us on Facebook

March 25 & 26, Friday & Saturday
Red Ape Rally Days

March 26, Saturday
Moonlight Safari "Family Night" (register online)

March 26 or 27, Saturday or Sunday
Family Program SPECIAL "Zootastic Re-creations"(register online)

Spring Break Giveaway Days is BACK!!

SPRING BREAK is here again & to celebrate we are GIVING AWAY FREE STUFF!! All week long we want to BRING YOU TO THE ZOO! Check out our partners, My719Moms.com and pikespeakparent.com for AMAZING ZOO prizes! Check our facebook, twitter and blog daily for giveaways and freebies the week of March 21-25!

Here are the week-long giveaways happening every day from Monday, March 21 through Friday, March 25:

Comment on the zoo’s BLOG any day all week for your chance to win 2 FREE SkyRide passes ALL WEEK LONG! Blog comments must be unique and only one entry per person, per day will be entered.

Win a Run to the Shrine t-shirt by being a FACEBOOK fan or TWITTER follower! Five winners will be chosen at random from all followers and fans this week.

Share your Zoo videos on our FACEBOOK page and be entered to win a Family 4 Pack! Two winners will be chosen at random during the week.

The daily giveaways aren’t being announced in advance. Guests will have to visit the zoo on Facebook or Twitter to find out what the daily giveaway is. Prizes include a Run to the Shrine registration, free Sky Ride, tram, and carousel rides (specific dates and times only), free giraffe feeding experience coupons, free admission passes, and more!

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo WINS "Best Attraction Outside Denver"

We are EXCITED to announce that Cheyenne Mountain Zoo has been named the “Best Attraction Outside Denver” by “Colorado Meetings and Events” magazine for the second year in a row!! Thank you to all of our amazing guests for making us such a GREAT attraction!


The Zoo's marketing team was excited to accept this prestigious award.

Study: Elephants cooperate to achieve goals

We found this video online of a study about elephants, and had to share it.

Footage of an oversized experiment has revealed that elephants understand when they need help from a partner. In the test, two animals had to work together - each pulling on a rope in order to tug a platform towards them.

Elephants' apparent grasp of the need to co-operate shows, scientists say, that they belong in an "elite group" of intelligent, socially complex animals. Researchers from the University of Cambridge built the apparatus, which was originally designed for chimps.



The team published their findings in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Study leader Dr. Joshua Plotnik from the University of Cambridge told the BBC it was exciting to find a way to study elephant behaviour in such detail.

"It's so hard to work with elephants because of their size," he said. "We see them doing amazing things in the wild, but we can see from this that they're definitely co-operating."

Read more at BBC Earth News.