Who cares about subterranean mammals?
Although at least some of the underground dwellers have been known for many years, their biology has remained unstudied. This may be explained by the cryptic way of life of subterranean animals, and technical problems related with keeping, breeding, and observing them. The fact is, scientists were always more fascinated by animals coping with complicated environments and solving seemingly difficult and complex problems than by those encountered by mammals underground (sensitive vision versus blindness; echolocation in a highfrequency range versus hearing in a human auditory range; navigating across hundreds or thousands of miles versus maze orientation across tens of feet; thermoregulation in cold environments versus life in a thermally buffered burrow, etc.). Interestingly, although many preserved specimens of moles (i.e., insectivorous subterranean mammals) and mole-rats (subterranean rodents) have been collected and deposited in museums, not even the study of morphological digging s
