The common mole (click the pictures for a larger view)

The Mole & His Diet

The mole is part of the Talpidae family, order insectivora, and has a pointed snout, rudimentary eyes, soft thick velvety fur, broad feet and long powerful claws on the front pair of legs.

The mole, or "little gentleman in velvet" is a worm catcher of astonishing rapidity and devours his own bodyweight in worms in a short time.  He needs 50% of his bodyweight in food per day and can quickly die of starvation.  He eats mainly worms, which he holds in his front paws like a squirrel and wipes it clean with his claws, but he also eats slugs and snails or whatever appropriate meal he comes across!  In deciduous woods on clay soil there will be enough worms to feed two moles per acre and he will not often have to venture above ground from his underground tunnels.  Earthworms fall into their tunnels and he will sense them, catch them and often store them injured but alive in his larder at the side of an underground run.

Nesting

The female mole builds her nest in a football sized chamber lined with dead leaves and grass.  A larger molehill may cover the breeding nest in spring.  The young are born without hair in June, generally about four or five of them.  The curious mounds of earth thrown up by moles (molehills) are excellent drainage and soil aeration made by mole tunnels but most gardeners are not so keen!  Moles seldom nest in water-logged soil.  The tunnels are not just homes but carefully constructed traps to catch their prey, as well as kitchen and dining room!  Moles often return to the same sites annually.  Enlarged nest chambers are built at the centre of tunnel networks, in which they weave a ball of dried grass.  Elaborate "fortresses" are built above the surface if the soil is not deep enough for a conventional nest.

    Mole babies

To see a small movie of a mole go here

Some real molehills - thanks for the pic Laura

Predators and Causes of Death

When they are underground moles are relatively safe from predators but above ground they are killed by cats, birds of prey and man (gardeners mainly!).  Weasels enter the moles' run and kill them underground.  The young are particularly vulnerable in early summer when they leave the burrow to search for their own territories.  Buzzards and ravens will take them as will herons who sometimes stab moles with their beaks when they detect their movement below the surface (ouch!!!).  Tawny owls catch them at night.

Man, though, has always been his greatest enemy!  Once killed for their moleskin coats or for plumbers who found their skins excellent for wiping joints in pipes, now many are poisoned by farmers.  The farmers' main objection is that they disturb seedlings of wheat and throw up stones on their molehills that blunt the cutting-edge of farm implements.  Thousands have an agonising and cruel death after being poisoned with strychnine which is allowed with a permit from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.  Many are also killed because they have disfigured lawns!

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If you are one of those unfortunate people who actually has a mole-related lawn problem may I suggest this site:

http://www.molecology.co.uk/