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Glowing gophers: Scientists puzzled at what causes the rodents to light up under blacklight

A southeastern pocket gopher. (Courtesy of JT Pynne)
A southeastern pocket gopher. (Courtesy of JT Pynne)

In the past few years, researchers have found a handful of mammals that glow under UV lights: flying squirrels, wombats and platypuses. Now, we can add pocket gophers to the list.

As Molly Samuel of WABE reports, scientists have some theories but they don’t really know why the animals glow.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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