Northern mole

Description

The Northern mole reaches a snout-vent length of 11.3 to 15.9 cm, the tail becomes 2.5 to 4.0 cm long. The weight varies from 72 to 128 g. The Northern mole is well adapted to the underground burrowing way of life. The body shows a cylindrical shape, the neck is short and the conically shaped head ends in a pointed snout. The short tail retracts at the base, usually held upright. The broad forelimbs are short, broad and laterally oriented. All five fingers bear extraordinary claws. The hands are turned outwards, forming an effective digging tool. In contrast, the hindlimbs, which grow to 1.7 to 2.8 cm in length, appear rather graceful, the claws on each of the five toes appear much less developed.

Externally visible ears are not present. The eyes lie in a palpebral fissure. Their size is greatly reduced, but they have not completely lost their function. The soft fur, which does not have a stripe and thus does not offer any resistance during locomotion in the corridors and tunnels, is usually dark grey to black in colour with a slightly lighter tone on the underparts. However, colour anomalies occur in individual animals, ranging from white-grey silver to piebald, cream and yellow to orange and coffee brown. The limbs are hairless, as is the tail. 

Habitat

They inhabit a variety of different habitats, but all have in common a thick soil layer, deep enough to create burrows and tunnels, with an abundant food supply. In general, the presence of the Northern mole is positively linked to the regional abundance of earthworms. As a result, it avoids acidic soils; the threshold value is reached at a pH value of 4.5 or higher, as the density of earthworms decreases rapidly here. It also avoids heavily industrialised regions with sometimes considerable pollution combined with a decline in soil quality. The altitudinal distribution covers the areas from sea level up to around 2700 m altitude. Originally, the Northern mole colonised deciduous forest landscapes, but today it can also be found on pastures, fallow land, in parks and in gardens. It also spreads into urban areas, whereby green spaces with a minimum area of about 10 ha are required for a permanent settlement, while the density of urban settlement around plays only a rather minor role. Accordingly, however, too small green islands with poor vegetation prevent a settlement of the mole, since on the one hand the density of prey is too low, and on the other hand parts of the urban infrastructure such as roads and kerbs often represent insurmountable barriers.

The text is a translation of an excerpt from Wikipedia (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europäischer_Maulwurf). On wikipedia the text is available under a „Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike“ licence. Status: 09 August 2021