Insufficient Numbers for a Labour.

Friday, March 3rd 2017

The presence of some of the wildlife at Foxglove is more often deduced from signs than confirmed by sightings. For example footprints of our roe deer, droppings from the water voles or hills from the moles.

However, sometimes we spot the more elusive animals and this happened earlier in the week: I was looking out of the kitchen window as I washed up and spotted something dark and furry moving in the grass…

Closer inspection showed it to be a mole! The first I’ve ever seen alive! He (yes, it did appear to be a he!) was bigger than I had expected, and faster, with a constantly twitching nose.

Moles are industrious diggers, able to create 20m of tunnel per day. It therefore seems fitting that the collective noun for moles is a labour!

Moles are very interesting animals with some pretty cool adaptations for their underground life, including:

• Short, stout, strong legs with powerful paws perfect for digging;

• Short, dense, velvety fur which lies in any direction, providing no resistance to the mole as it moves forward or backward through its burrows; 

• More blood and twice as much haemoglobin compared to other mammals of their size, to deal with lower levels of oxygen in their tunnel system compared to the surface; and

• Sensitive hairs on their snout, feet and tail which help them to find their (mostly earthworm) prey and although their eyesight is not good they have excellent hearing and are very sensitive to vibration.

Moles are considered a pest as they can kill small plants by shifting the earth beneath them, expose stones and debris that can damage machinery and their molehills can be considered unsightly. However, moles also have benefits as they will eat grubs that can kill grass and young shrubs. Their digging aerates the soil, can help with drainage and rainfall capture and also can help plants by carrying organic matter deeper into the soil and mineral-rich subsoil to the surface.

The Greater Manchester Local Record Centre has a nice fact sheet on moles here if you’d like to find out a bit more about these fascinating and beautiful mammals.

As I mentioned earlier, moles are fast and really good diggers – when we popped ours down on some soft earth he burrowed away in only a few seconds!

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