Mole (animal)


Moles are small, subterranean mammals. They have cylindrical bodies, velvety fur, very small, inconspicuous eyes and ears, reduced hindlimbs, and short, powerful forelimbs with large paws adapted for digging.
The word "mole" most commonly refers to many species in the family Talpidae. True moles are found in most parts of North America, Europe and Asia. Other mammals referred to as moles include the African golden moles and the Australian marsupial moles, which have a similar ecology and lifestyle to true moles but are unrelated.
Moles may be viewed as pests to gardeners, but they provide positive contributions to soil, gardens, and ecosystems, including soil aeration, feeding on slugs and small creatures that eat plant roots, and providing prey for other wildlife. They eat earthworms and other small invertebrates in the soil.

Terminology

In Middle English, moles were known as moldwarps. By the era of Early Modern English, the mole was also known in English as mouldywarp or mouldiwarp, a word having cognates in other Germanic languages such as German, and Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Icelandic, where muld/mull/mold refers to soil and varp/vad/varpa refers to throwing, hence "one who throws soil" or "dirt-tosser".
Male moles are called "boars"; females are called "sows".

Characteristics

Underground breathing

Moles have been found to tolerate higher levels of carbon dioxide than other mammals, because their blood cells have a special form of hemoglobin that has a higher affinity to oxygen than other forms. In addition, moles use oxygen more effectively by reusing the exhaled air, and can survive in low-oxygen environments, such as burrows.

Extra thumbs

Moles have polydactyl forepaws: each has an extra thumb next to the regular thumb. While the mole's other digits have multiple joints, the prepollex has a single, sickle-shaped bone that develops later and differently from the other fingers during embryogenesis from a transformed sesamoid bone in the wrist, independently evolved but similar to the giant panda thumb. This supernumerary digit is species-specific, as it is not present in shrews, the mole's closest relatives. Androgenic steroids are known to affect the growth and formation of bones, and a connection is possible between this species-specific trait and the male genital apparatus in female moles of many mole species.

Diet

Moles are omnivores, but their diet primarily consists of earthworms and other small invertebrates found in the soil. The mole runs are in reality "worm traps", the mole sensing when a worm falls into the tunnel and quickly running along to kill and eat it. Because their saliva contains a toxin that can paralyze earthworms, moles are able to store their still-living prey for later consumption. They construct special underground "larders" for just this purpose; researchers have discovered such larders with over a thousand earthworms in them. Before eating earthworms, moles pull them between their squeezed paws to force the collected earth and dirt out of the worm's gut.
The star-nosed mole can detect, catch and eat food faster than the human eye can follow.

Breeding

Breeding season for a mole depends on species, but is generally from February through May. Males search for females by letting out high-pitched squeals and tunneling through foreign areas.
The gestation period of the Eastern mole is approximately 42 days. Three to five young are born, mainly in March and early April. Townsend's moles mate in February and March, and the 2–4 young are born in March and April after a gestation period of about 1 month.

Social structure

Moles are allegedly solitary creatures, coming together only to mate. Territories may overlap, but moles avoid each other and males may fight fiercely if they meet.

Classification

The family Talpidae contains all the true moles and some of their close relatives. Those species called "shrew moles" represent an intermediate form between the moles and their shrew ancestors, and as such may not be fully described by the article.
Moles were traditionally classified in the order Insectivora, but that order has since been abandoned because it has been shown to not be monophyletic. Moles are now classified with shrews and hedgehogs, in the more narrowly defined order Eulipotyphla.
  • Subfamily Scalopinae: New World moles
  • * Tribe Condylurini: Star-nosed mole
  • ** Genus Condylura: Star-nosed mole
  • * Tribe Scalopini: New World moles
  • ** Genus Alpiscaptulus: Medog mole
  • **Genus Parascalops: Hairy-tailed mole
  • ** Genus Scalopus: Eastern mole
  • ** Genus Scapanulus: Gansu mole
  • ** Genus Scapanus: Western North American moles
  • Subfamily Talpinae: Old World moles, desmans, and shrew moles
  • *Tribe Desmanini
  • **Genus Desmana: Russian desman
  • **Genus Galemys: Pyrenean desman
  • *Tribe Talpini: Old World moles
  • ** Genus Euroscaptor: Ten Asian species
  • ** Genus Mogera: Nine species from Japan, Korea, and eastern China
  • ** Genus Parascaptor: White-tailed mole, southern Asia
  • ** Genus Scaptochirus: Short-faced mole, China
  • ** Genus Talpa: Thirteen species, Europe and western Asia
  • * Tribe Scaptonychini: Long-tailed mole
  • ** Genus Scaptonyx: Long-tailed mole
  • * Tribe Urotrichini: Japanese shrew moles
  • ** Genus Dymecodon: True's shrew mole
  • ** Genus Urotrichus: Japanese shrew mole
  • * Tribe Neurotrichini: New World shrew moles
  • ** Genus Neurotrichus: American shrew mole
  • Subfamily Uropsilinae: Asian shrew moles
  • * Genus Uropsilus: Five species in China, Bhutan, and Myanmar

    Other "moles"

Many groups of burrowing animals have independently developed close physical similarities with moles due to convergent evolution; two of these are so similar to true moles, they are commonly called and thought of as "moles" in common English, although they are completely unrelated to true moles or to each other. These are the golden moles of southern Africa and the marsupial moles of Australia. While difficult to distinguish from each other, they are most easily distinguished from true moles by shovel-like patches on their noses, which they use in tandem with their abbreviated forepaws to swim through sandy soils.

Golden moles

The golden moles belong to the same branch on the phylogenetic tree as the tenrecs, called Tenrecomorpha, which, in turn, stem from a main branch of placental mammals called the Afrosoricida. This means that they share a closer common ancestor with such existing afrosoricids as elephants, manatees and aardvarks than they do with other placental mammals, such as true Talpidae moles.
As marsupials, these moles are even more distantly related to true talpid moles than golden moles are, both of which belong to the Eutheria, or placental mammals. This means that they are more closely related to such existing Australian marsupials as kangaroos or koalas, and even to a lesser extent to American marsupials, such as opossums, than they are to placental mammals, such as golden or Talpidae moles.
Class Mammalia
  • Subclass Prototheria: monotremes
  • Subclass Theriiformes: live-bearing mammals and their prehistoric relatives
  • *Infraclass Holotheria: modern live-bearing mammals and their prehistoric relatives
  • **Supercohort Theria: live-bearing mammals
  • ***Cohort Marsupialia: marsupials
  • ****Magnorder Ameridelphia: New World marsupials
  • ***** Order Didelphimorphia
  • ***** Order Paucituberculata
  • ****Superorder Australidelphia Australian marsupials
  • ***** Order Dasyuromorphia
  • ***** Order Peramelemorphia
  • ***** Order Diprotodontia
  • ***** Order Notoryctemorphia
  • ****** Family Notoryctidae
  • ******* Genus Notoryctes
  • ******** Species Notoryctes typhlops
  • ******** Species ''Notoryctes caurinus''

    Interaction with humans

Pelts

Moles' pelts have a velvety texture not found in surface animals. Surface-dwelling animals tend to have longer fur with a natural tendency for the nap to lie in a particular direction, but to facilitate their burrowing lifestyle, mole pelts are short and very dense and have no particular direction to the nap. This makes it easy for moles to move backwards underground, as their fur is not "brushed the wrong way". The leather is extremely soft and supple. Queen Alexandra, the wife of Edward VII of the United Kingdom, ordered a mole-fur garment to start a fashion that would create a demand for mole fur, thereby turning what had been a serious pest problem in Scotland into a lucrative industry for the country. Hundreds of pelts are cut into rectangles and sewn together to make a coat. The natural color is taupe, but it is readily dyed any color.
The term "moleskin" for a tough cotton fabric is in common use today.