Abstract
Naked mole-rats occur in large colonies where usually a single queen monopolizes reproduction. Queen succession occurs from within usually as a result of aggressive encounters with subordinate females that queue for reproductive succession following colony instability, which inevitably results in death of either the queen or the challenging conspecific. We monitored a queen succession following the death of the breeding male in a colony of the naked mole-rat, Heterocephalus glaber, prior to, during as well as after replacement of the original breeding female. The response of the pituitary luteotrophs was investigated in the non-reproductive females during this period of instability by the administration of endogenous gonadotrophin releasing hormone (GnRH) and evaluating the subsequent luteinising hormone (LH) response in the blood. Larger and older non-breeding females engaged in aggressive encounters that culminated in death. The new breeding successor which arose from within the colony was a large femal...
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