Mole-rat

Mole-rat or mole rat can refer to several groups of burrowing Old World rodents:

  • Bathyergidae, a family of about 20 hystricognath species in six genera from Africa also called blesmols.
  • Heterocephalus glaber, the naked mole-rat.
  • Spalacidae, a family of about 30 muroid species in six genera from Eurasia and northeast Africa, including:
    • Tachyoryctes, a genus of about 15 species from Africa;
    • Blind mole rats (Spalacinae), a subfamily of about 15 living species in the genus Spalax from southeastern Europe, southwestern Asia, and northeastern Africa;
    • Zokors (Myospalacinae), occasionally called mole-rats, about eight species from central and eastern Asia.
  • In the family Muridae:
    • Nesokia indica from southern and southwestern Asia and Egypt, also known as the short-tailed mole-rat.
    • Bandicota bengalensis from southern Asia, also known as the Indian mole-rat.


Disambiguation icon
Index of animals with the same common name
This page is an index of articles on animal species (or higher taxonomic groups) with the same common name (vernacular name). If an internal link led you here, you may wish to edit the linking article so that it links directly to the intended article.