Breeding īreeding season for a mole depends on species, but is generally from February through to May. The star-nosed mole can detect, catch and eat food faster than the human eye can follow. Before eating earthworms, moles pull them between their squeezed paws to force the collected earth and dirt out of the worm's gut. They construct special underground "larders" for just this purpose researchers have discovered such larders with over a thousand earthworms in them. Because their saliva contains a toxin that can paralyze earthworms, moles are able to store their still-living prey for later consumption. 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. Diet Ī mole's diet primarily consists of earthworms and other small invertebrates found in the soil. 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 ( gonads with testicular and ovary tissues). This supernumerary digit is species-specific, as it is not present in shrews, the mole's closest relatives. 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. Moles have polydactyl forepaws each has an extra thumb (also known as a prepollex) next to the regular thumb. In addition to this, moles utilize oxygen more effectively by reusing the exhaled air, and as a result, are able to survive in low-oxygen environments such as burrows. 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. Male moles are called "boars", females are called "sows". By the era of Early Modern English, the mole was also known in English as mouldywarp, a word having cognates in other Germanic languages such as German ( Maulwurf), and Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Icelandic ( muldvarp, moldvarp, mullvad, moldvarpa), where the muld/mull/mold part of the word means soil and the varp/vad/varpa part means throw, hence "one who throws soil" or "dirt tosser". The expression "don't make a mountain out of a molehill" (which means "exaggerating problems") was first recorded in Tudor times. In Middle English, moles were known as moldwarp. 8.2 Pest status - extermination and humane options.
While moles may be viewed as pests, they do provide many positive contributions to the soil, gardens, and ecosystem, including soil aeration, feeding on slugs and other small creatures that do eat plant roots, and providing prey for other wildlife. They do not eat plant roots, but cause damage indirectly by eating earthworms and other small invertebrates in the soil. Moles are known pests to human activities such as agriculture, lawncare, and gardening. The term mole is especially and most properly used for "true moles" of the family Talpidae in the order Eulipotyphla, which are found in most parts of North America, Europe and Asia, although it may also refer to unrelated mammals of Australia and southern Africa that have convergently evolved the "mole" body plan. They have cylindrical bodies, velvety fur, very small, inconspicuous eyes and ears, reduced hindlimbs, and short, powerful forelimbs with large paws adapted for digging. Moles are small mammals adapted to a subterranean lifestyle (i.e., fossorial).