I didn’t even know we had star-nosed moles up here
On July 14, 2021, I found this small mammal that had just died at the side of our road. It did not look damaged at all, so it wasn’t killed by traffic. I think it probably drowned and washed down the side of the road in the rainstorm we had the previous night.
It was clearly a mole, as we can see from the very fine-textured grey fur, and the strong front digging paws.
This is actually something of a surprise to me, I didn’t realize that moles had made it up here to the Keweenaw Peninsula yet. They not only would have had to migrate up from further south, they also would have had to deal with our thin, rocky soil, which would be pretty hard-digging. I’d never even seen mole tunnels in anyone’s yard, unlike downstate where they are all over the place.
But then, looking closer, we see that this is specifically a Star-Nosed Mole, Condylura cristata. We can tell from the star-shaped Eimer’s organ on the end of its snout.
Many other moles have similar sensory organs on their noses, but the star-nosed moles have then much more extensively developed than others. These are primarily for a very detailed sense of touch underground, so that the mole can rapidly pick out and eat worms, grubs, and other small invertebrates that they find underground. They can both use it to feel prey items directly, or to detect the vibrations that they make.
It turns out that star-nosed moles are probably not the moles that people complain about making unsightly tunnels in yards. Instead, the star-nosed moles are semiaquatic, living in low, moist areas and swamps. Since they mostly are underground, and are often in marshy areas where people don’t like to walk, they can be pretty numerous without anyone really noticing their presence. The water that runs beside our road comes out of a cattail swamp, so there is a pretty good chance that this one was washed out of there.
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