D uring the past 30 years, I’ve had many chances to study and photograph all sorts of critters — from tiny shrews to the massive moose.
But there are a few critters that I still haven’t had a chance to photograph and get to know. While out for a walk with a friend on a recent winter day, we happened upon one of those critters that I’ve haven’t been lucky enough to study up close or photograph — a star-nosed mole (Condylura cristata).
The star-nosed mole has to be one of the strangest-looking creatures. If you’ve ever seen one of these hamster-sized moles, you won’t forget it. They are easily identified by their large, pink, fleshy noses ringed by a “star” of 22 short appendages, each called a ray, emanating from around its snout. It looks like an octopus on the face. The nose appendage is a large touch/sensory organ with more than 25,000 to 30,000 sensory receptors known as Eimer’s organs. By comparison, the average human hand has about 17,000 touch receptors. It is thought the rays can touch as many as 12 objects per second, and figure out what each object is by sending messages back and forth to the brain.
They usually live in low, wet habitats along the East Coast of the United States, stretching westward and reaching around the Great Lakes region. The mole spends 99 percent of its life underground, so it’s rarely seen. Unlike other moles, which prefer dry soils, the star-nose prefers moist soils and shallow ponds. Surprisingly, they spend a lot of time swimming and diving underwater in search of food, even under the ice in winter.
They have fairly long, sparsely haired tails, about 2 inches long. During winter, they store extra fat in the tail, making the tail look plump. The body is covered in short, dense, waterproof fur. This helps them to keep warm when diving in icy cold water or tunneling through the snow.
They have tiny little eyes. Sometimes, if the fur is in the right place, you can’t even see their eyes. Since they live underground it is generally accepted that they don’t see like you and me. Their vision is more geared toward seeing light and dark only. Researchers believe the sensory information from the rays on the nose act much as an eye would act. The stimuli send information back to the brain to give a “visual” map of what they have encountered. At least half of the mole’s brain is devoted to processing sensory information sent from the appendages of the nose alone.
What I found visually amazing about this creature are its front feet — huge paddle-shaped feet that angle outward like tiny shovels. Each front paw has five toes and five very long nails. The nails are used for digging through dirt and swimming underwater. But look closer and you can see many small angled digging spades along each toe and sometimes on the palms. I’ve seen these kinds of spades on the foot of the spade-foot toads. The spades do a remarkable job at helping to dig in dirt.
They have specialized stiff hairs, a lot like whiskers, along the outer edge of each paw to help them feel where they are digging since they can’t see in the darkness underground. The paws are connected to tiny but remarkably powerful arms that give them amazing leverage and strength when digging. The star-nosed moles are not the moles who are digging tunnels and leaving piles of dirt in your yard. That’s the Eastern mole. Rarely do you see any evidence of the star-nose mole, especially since their habitat is usually too wet for most yards.
I got to know this amazing creature and its many adaptations. I am always reminded about how diverse nature is and how such a tiny animal can be so specialized and wonderful. I feel truly lucky to have finally had a chance to study this amazing creature.
Stan Tekiela is an author, naturalist and wildlife photographer from Victoria who travels the United States to study and photograph wildlife. Find him on Facebook and Twitter and at www.naturesmart.com.
