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Welcome to Animalia Stupendium. My name is Argomandanes, wizard in exile the Triumvirate didn't quite work out, inventor of several common cants and tireless creature chronicler. However, mere monsters hold no mystery for me. These days. Dragons alas our drab m basilisks are boring. Instead, I turn my attention once more to the strange fauna of a land called Earth. Travel with me, a gentle reader, as we consider the.
Mole common name mole scientific classification. Various pieces of the family talpa day frequency and range throughout North America and Eurasia. Size small, but with varying body sizes depending on species, diet insects, molluscs, and worms depending on species. Treasure hoard for some species earthworm larders challenge rating two.
The family Talpidae contains a great many moles and even the semi aquatic desmond. While desmonds swim in the water to hunt their mostly insect prey, the rest of their talpid kin swim through the ground. Yes, the mole or the mold warps as they were once known among the earthlings, are highly evolved for burrowing life beneath the soil, where
they thrive mostly on worms and insects. They are, in fact the super predator of earthworms, periodically driving them to the surface, where the worms will sooner take their chances with swooping birds than the all consuming snout of the mole. Their high metabolism requires them to eat NonStop day and night, digging upwards of one hundred feet of tunnels in a single day as they gobble up considerable portions of their
body weight in worms or other creatures each day. The mole's saliva contains a special worm paralyzing toxin toxin damage, which allows them to paralyze surplus prey and store them away in a grizzly larder for later consumption. During leaner times,
these larders may contain a thousand worms. These subterranean or fossorial moles boast per fit bodies for their lifestyle, short, cylindrical, and their velvety fur can lie in either direction, depending on which direction the creature is tunneled is you should never pedimal, but it would not be possible to pet their fur in the wrong direction. If you did. Additionally, their foreclaws are long and powerful for digging strokes, and each four par boasts an extra thumb called a prepolyx.
Their eyes are small and their vision poor, sure enough, but theirs is not a realm of sight, but of smell and touch. We see this especially with the star nosed moles, so named for the twenty two hairless tentacle like rays that fan out around their nostrils, constantly questing, questing for worms, insects, and even fish. For the star nosed mole may also take to the water and is a strong swimmer with an excellent sense of smell, but its signature nose provides it with a sense of touch
beyond that of any other mammal. While the human hand boasts a mere seventeen thousand nerve endings, the star nosed mole puts this to shame with something on the order of a hundred thousand nerve endings in the microscopic touch organs called IMA's organs that cover the rays of its starry snout, simply astonishing. There is also the not so small a matter of how to breathe. Underground moles have evolved specialized hemoglobin proteins that, through one method or another,
are exceedingly good at binding with oxygen. Furthermore, they're better able to make use of the oxygen that they get while remaining more tall currant of elevated carbon dioxide levels beneath the soil. They have truly taken to the soil like well a fish to water. Gardeners, do not tremble at the sight of their wake in your topsoil, but rejoice that you are in the presence of such splendid
form and function. Now there are more mysteries concerning moles to consider, But for now I must retire my wizard's quill and allow my familiars some respite. But I shall return with even more wonders of the natural world.
Hi, this is Robert Lamb. Thanks to the wizard Agromandanese once more for joining us in this episode. Sources for this episode included why do star No's moles have a hand on their face? By Holly Cheating Welsh for the Natural History Museum, the website Animal Diverse Web Science Shock Burrowing moles breathe easily by Dolly J. Krishnaswami, Science dot Org. How the mole got its twelve Fingers, University of Zurich twenty eleven and the National Wildlife Federation. Thanks as always
to the excellent JJ Possway for producing this episode. If you wish to contact Argo Mandanese with recommendations for future episodes or feedback, you can send an email to contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.
Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.