October 7 through 9 is Wild Weekend at Liberty Science Center! All weekend, you're invited to embrace your wild side and celebrate some of our favorite wild animals, such as naked mole rats.

For these three days only, you can experience our "Naked Mole Rat Trail." You'll get to travel to different exhibitions in our building – such as Communication, Infection Connection, and Touch Tunnel – and try some activities designed to help you understand the life of a mole rat. For example, when you crawl through the Touch Tunnel, you'll wear whiskers to help find your way through the dark.

But before you step into the life of a mole rat, let's take a look at some wild facts surrounding these fascinating, tiny, hairless creatures:

• Mole rats almost never get cancer. Even though cancer was found in two mole rats back in 2016, these were the only two times that scientists have found it. Researchers hope that by studying mole rats, they can someday find a cure for this illness.
• Some mole rat colonies have created tunnel systems totaling 2.5 miles long.
• Mole rats can live up to 32 years, which is extremely long for an animal of their size. Mice, for example, live at most for two years.
• Mole rats can survive at least than 18 minutes without oxygen. In a recent study, scientists placed these tiny animals in an environment with no oxygen at all (anything less than 10 percent kills a human). Even after this long length of time, the mole rats were fine – all they did was go to sleep. When the oxygen returned, the mole rats quickly recovered.

These facts only scratch the surface at how wild naked mole rats really are. Meet them in-person during your visit to the Science Center! You can find them on the third floor in our Eat and Be Eaten gallery.