Moles (animal)
Moles are small, burrowing mammals found across various continents, including Africa, Europe, Asia, North America, and Australia. They are characterized by their pointy snouts, velvety fur, and powerful digging claws, which allow them to create extensive burrow systems as they search for food—primarily earthworms and insect larvae. Moles are known for their remarkable digging ability, capable of excavating up to twenty-five feet of tunnel per hour. Their homes are often marked by visible earth mounds, referred to as molehills, which result from the soil they displace while burrowing.
There are twelve genera of moles worldwide, with five present in the United States, including the well-known star-nosed and eastern American moles. Moles tend to be solitary and are nearly blind; they rely on their acute hearing and touch, particularly the star-nosed mole, which has a unique star-shaped sensory organ. Moles have distinct life cycles, with females building nests for their young and a relatively short gestation period. While they are often viewed as pests by gardeners and farmers due to their tunneling activities, moles play a beneficial role by controlling insect populations, highlighting the complex relationship between these creatures and human activity.
Moles (animal)
Mole Facts
Classification:
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Chordata
- Class: Mammalia
- Infraclass: Eutheria
- Order: Soricomorpha
- Family: Talpidae, with three subfamilies: Scalopinae, which includes the generaCondylura,Parascalops,Scalopus,Scapanulus, andScapanus; Talpinae, which includes the generaEuroscaptor,Mogera,Parascaptor,Scaptochirus,Talpa,Scaptonyx,Dymecodon,Urotrichus, andNeurotrichus; and Uropsilinae, which includes the genusUropsilus
- Geographical location: Europe, Asia, North America, and Australia
- Habitat: Most inhabit grasslands and pastures, though some live in freshwater
- Gestational period: Two to six weeks
- Life span: Three to six years
- Special anatomy: Huge forelegs with broad nails; leathery pads or tentacle rings covering nasal passages
Moles inhabit Africa, Europe, Asia, North America, and Australia. They are voracious, continually burrowing in the ground for food, for a mole must eat its weight in food daily. This is accomplished by digging approximately twenty-five feet of burrow per hour. Mole burrows are close to ground surfaces and can cause surface ridges. A mole’s home is also recognized by its large, central mound of earth. This mole hill is created from the earth dug up in the mole’s search for food. There are twelve mole genera worldwide, five of which inhabit the United States.
Types of Moles
Moles have pointy snouts, rudimentary eyes, velvety fur, short legs, and powerful digging nails on their front legs. Moles are nearly or totally blind; however, their hearing is acute and they detect sounds from great distances. Common garden moles are six inches long with furless tails, and have huge forelegs whose broad, thick nails gouge out earth. The largest species in the United States, Townsend's mole (Scapanus townsendii), is nine inches long. American shrew moles (Neurotrichus gibbsii), the smallest, are 3.5 inches long.
European moles (Talpa europaea) inhabit grasslands and pastures in the British Isles, continental Europe, and Asia. They dig elaborate burrows that hold central chambers with round connected galleries. Passageways radiate in all directions from galleries (for example, there will be a boltrun exit in case of danger). Each burrow has a warmly lined nest for the mole. Tunnels run from just below ground level to 2.5 feet deep and may be 170 feet long. European moles eat worms, beetle and fly larvae, and slugs. They are active day and night, alternating every four hours between digging or eating and resting, and they live alone except when mating.
Star-nosed moles, of eastern Canada and the northeastern United States, are black-furred, five inches long (excluding the tail) and weigh three ounces. They live near water, swim well, and dig in soil along shorelines. They burrow day and night, foraging for earthworms, aquatic insects, fish, and mollusks. Their nose tips hold a twenty-two-tentacle, touch-sensitive star which is their main sense organ. Star-nosed moles are solitary.
Golden moles are distinct from the true moles and instead belong to the Chrysochloridea suborder of the Afrosoricida order.
Life Cycles of Moles
Life cycles are best known for the star-nosed and European moles. Male and female star-nosed moles mate between February and April. The female builds a nest of leaves and moss in her burrow and has two to seven furless, blind, helpless young after a six-week gestation. They develop quickly, leave the nest in three weeks, and can mate after ten months.
Male European moles enter the tunnels of females to mate. After a five-week gestation, three to seven blind, hairless young are born. The young grow fur, open their eyes, and leave the nest in five weeks. European moles live for three years.
Moles are considered to be pests by many farmers and home gardeners, who think they eat plant roots and kill crops. However, moles never eat plants and perform a real service by killing grubs, caterpillars, and insects. Nonetheless, farmers, gardeners, and people with lawns consider them nuisances and poison them or set traps in their tunnels because they “spoil gardens and fields.”
Principal Terms
boltrun: mole burrow tunnel used as an emergency exit
gestation: time in which mammalian offspring develop in the uterus
marsupial: nonplacental mammal having a marsupium
marsupium: abdominal pouch containing mammary glands and sheltering offspring until they are fully developed
Bibliography
Atkinson, Rob. Moles. Stansted: Whittet, 2013. Print.
Bailey, Jill. Discovering Shrews, Moles, and Voles. New York: Bookwright, 1989. Print.
Garcia, Eulalia. Moles: Champion Excavators. Milwaukee: Gareth Stevens, 1997. Print.
Gorman, Martyn L., and R. David Stone. The Natural History of Moles. Ithaca: Comstock, 1990. Print.
Mellanby, Kenneth. The Mole. New York: Taplinger, 1973. Print.