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(Family Talpidapae )
Any of 42 species of insectivores, most of which are adapted for aggressive burrowing and for living most of their lives underground. Burrowing moles have a cylindrical body with a short tail and short, stocky limbs. A long, nearly hairless, and highly mobile piglike muzzle extends beyond the upper lip. Most species lack external ears, and their tiny eyes are hidden in their fur. Many have a strong odor..
Moles have poor vision but acute senses of hearing and touch. The muzzle is tipped with thousands of microscopic tactile structures (Eimer’s organs). Using these structures and sensory hairs along the muzzle and elsewhere on the body, moles detect and differentiate details of their environment and their prey. The powerful forelimbs of most species are rotated outward from the body, like oars protruding from a boat. The large circular hands are fringed with sensory hairs and have broad spadelike claws for digging; they also function as paddles for swimming.
Moles are generally active all year and by day or night in cycles of activity and rest. Typical moles will only infrequently go to the surface to gather nest materials and seek water during drought. Terrestrial moles primarily eat earthworms, but they also consume other invertebrates, occasionally small mammals, succulent plant parts (roots, tubers, bulbs), seeds, and fungi. Amphibious moles eat aquatic invertebrates, fish, and amphibians. Some moles can consume more than their weight in food daily. There is one litter per year, usually of three to five young, born in a nest of dry vegetation; gestation lasts a month.
Most species construct temporary tunnels through the soil with their front limbs, using a fore-and-aft motion similar to a human swimming the breaststroke. Permanent complex systems of galleries containing storage and nesting chambers are excavated up to 4.5 metres (15 feet) underground. The mole braces its body in the tunnel to shear soil from the tunnel face with first one forelimb and then the other and then turns around to push the loose soil with its forefeet through the tunnel onto the surface to form a small mound (molehill). The European mole (Talpa europaea) sometimes constructs a huge mound (fortress) of up to 750 kg (1,650 pounds) of soil, and it too contains tunnel networks and storage and nesting chambers. Moles have an acute sense of smell and mark their burrows with urine containing odorous substances produced by a pair of scent glands beneath the skin of the lower abdomen.
In North America moles live throughout the eastern and western portions of the continent but not in the Great Plains or western deserts. In the Old World their range extends from Europe eastward to the Malayan Peninsula, Taiwan, and Japan. They primarily inhabit temperate regions, and in the Southeast Asian tropics they are restricted to temperate-like mountain habitats. They are found at elevations extending from sea level to 4,500 metres (14,800 feet). Moles dwell in moist lowland and alpine meadows, river floodplains, prairies, sagebrush-grass habitats, coniferous and deciduous forests, coastal sand dunes, cultivated fields and gardens, marshy areas, streams, lakes, and rivers.
MOLES