Nature Bulletin No. 514-A   January 26, 1974
Forest Preserve District of Cook County
George W. Dunne, President
Roland F. Eisenbeis, Supt. of Conservation

****:MOLES

Few people have ever seen a mole. That's because this strange animal 
lives its entire life underground and is rarely dragged out into the light 
of day. Sometimes we see those long, meandering ridges that it pushes 
up in lawns and gardens but most of us have no idea what the creature 
looks like.

The mole is built for digging. It has six-inch, torpedo-shaped body 
covered with dense, dark fur with a silky sheen which, like velvet, can 
be brushed either backward or forward. The head is cone-shaped with a 
long sensitive snout used for finding earthworms, grubs and other food. 
The short naked tail is used for guiding it backwards along the runways. 
In our common mole, the tiny eyeballs are completely covered with 
skin. There are no external ears, although they have a keen sense of 
hearing. The shoulders and forelegs are tremendously powerful with 
broad, shovel-like paws, each armed with five heavy claws.

The animal literally "swims" through the soil in its search for food. The 
hands are brought forward alongside the snout, then thrust outward and 
backward in a breast stroke, pushing the soil aside and pulling the 
animal forward. The soil above arches and cracks leaving a humped and 
broken trail. In autumn it bores deeper tunnels and pushes the excess 
earth into heaps above the surface called molehills. In such tunnels 
below the frost line it searches for insects during winter. A central nest 
chamber is commonly dug deep under a stump or boulder.

This industrious, hard-working animal has an enormous appetite. It has 
been reported to eat the equivalent of its own weight in food in a day, 
but one-third of its weight is more probably an average amount. The 
bulk of the diet consists of earthworms, white grubs, cutworms, 
wireworms, and other insects. Only about ten percent of plant material 
is eaten which may include grains of newly planted corn. Earthworms 
are eaten like spaghetti, beginning at the head end. Active insects are 
pinned by its body against the side of the burrow until they can be 
reached by the sharp, chopping teeth. Moles are often accused of 
damage to bulbs and garden crops -- damage which is really done by 
mice that invade their burrows.

The female mole ordinarily has one litter of four young each year in 
April or May. The young are born, naked and helpless, in a deep nest 
chamber where they remain for about a month. At the age of three 
months they are nearly as large as their parents. Three years is old age.

Moles lead solitary lives. The network of burrows of one animal may 
connect with those of others but they seldom associate with each other. 
In captivity they are extremely nervous and do not survive long. When 
two are confined together they usually fight to the death. This animal is 
safe from most enemies in its subterranean home. Cats and dogs are 
known to catch moles but refuse to eat them because of a distasteful 
secretion from the skin glands.

Whatever damage moles do to lawns, golf courses, gardens and 
cultivated fields is offset by the good that they do. They consume great 
numbers of destructive insects. The network of runways stirs the soil 
and allows rainfall to seep downward, thereby conserving moisture.

The star-nosed mole, a northern species, may have been present in 
Illinois at one time. It gets its name from the fringe of fleshy feelers 
around the tip of the nose. The hairy tail is nearly as long as the body. It 
prefers wet meadows and swamps. Occasionally it swims. It burrows, 
feeds on small underground animal life, and has habits much like our 
common mole.

Housewives and golfers make a mountain out of a molehill.