MOLES: APPEARANCE, BIOLOGY, LIFE CYCLE, HABITAT, DIET AND BEHAVIOUR
The Mole is a small mammal that is adapted to a fossorial lifestyle. A fossorial organism is that which lives the life of digging and mostly, digging underground. Some of the organisms considered to have a fossorial lifestyle include the badger, the mole salamander and the naked mole rat. This lifestyle is also known as subterranean. The mole comes from the Mammalia class, from the Soricomorpha order and the Talpidae family.
The body of the mole is cylindrical in shape and their fur seems to be made of some material that feels and looks like velvet. They also have small eyes, ears and limbs. The hind limbs of the mole have been greatly reduced and short. The forelimbs however, are very powerful because they have gone through the process of evolution and become adapted to digging underground. It is through this digging that they create pathways and navigate under the surface and also get their food.
The mole has very unusual, unique and interesting characteristics. These include the ability to breathe underground and the possession of an additional thumb on its front paws. Not all animals can breathe underground and have an extra finger so that makes the mole a creature of its own. O Their easily breath underground because studies conducted have found moles to be capable of tolerating extreme carbon dioxide levels unlike any other mammals. This is made possible because of the distinctive protein of haemoglobin found in their red blood cells. They have the ability to recycle oxygen when on the surface thus making them able to survive in environments will lesser oxygen concentration such as in burrows.
The extra thumb aids the moles digging escapades. It has an added advantage to dig faster because this extra thumb is usually very strong and grows adjacent to the real thumb.
Small invertebrates, nuts and earthworms are the mole’s main delicacies. These are because they are found in the soil. Mole usually create traps meant for worms and if a worm falls into it, the mole quickly gets to that point, kills it and eats it. Worms are also paralyzed by the moles because their saliva has a toxin capable of this.
Most moles live underground and would take them a very long time to appear on the surface. The habitats of moles usually depend on what species the mole is. Some live in areas such as marshes, meadows which are wet and bogs. Some prefer dry soil like the ones found in woodlands. However, they all have common characteristics. This is that the soil they live in has to be comprised of food and soft enough to create tunnels through them.
The season of mating is usually in the early days of spring. Gestation takes about 6 weeks. The mole can give birth to between two and seven babies at a time. They live for almost 5 to 6 years, according to researchers.
Go back to the
How To Get Rid of Moles home page. More mole control articles:
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