Ugly Star-Nosed Mole
North American River Otter (Condylura cristata): A small mole found in the eastern United States and Canada. It is the only member of the star-nosed mole tribe and genus.
It lives in damp environments and feeds on small invertebrates, aquatic insects, worms, and mollusks. Like other moles, the star-nosed mole digs tunnels near the ground to forage, and these tunnels usually have exits underwater. Researchers at Vanderbilt University discovered that the star-nosed mole is the fastest-moving mammalian predator in the world. Using high-speed cameras, you can see that 'star-nosed' can touch the location of the prey more than 12 times per second. Therefore, the star-nosed mole can complete the process of determining and capturing prey in a super-short time of one-quarter second.
The star-nosed mole is a small animal, weighing 35-75 grams, and its body length is 175-205 millimeters. It is smaller than a house mouse, and an adult star-nosed mole is about twice the size of a mouse. The star-nosed mole is characterized by the 22 tentacles on its nose, which surround the nose, like the rays of stars, so it is named. Through these tentacles, the star-nosed mole can find prey in a completely dark environment. According to scientific research, the star-nosed mole's ability to find prey through tentacles is several times greater than other moles that rely solely on vision to hunt.
The fleshy appendages around the star-nosed mole's nose, each covered with thousands of tiny granules, allow the star-nosed mole to detect approximately 600 areas the size of a needle tip at once.
Because the star-nosed mole's vision and hearing are degraded, its nose also plays the role of human's retina and bat's ultrasound. When the star-nosed mole shuttles through the tunnels, it also relies on continuously moving its nose to scan, and it uses all 22 appendages to quickly detect a wide range of space. Once it touches a place of interest, such as food, it adjusts the star-nosed position so that one of the appendages conducts a more detailed investigation.
The whole body is covered with fine dark-brown shaggy hair, which has waterproof and waterproof properties. The four wide paws are weapons for digging and rowing. A long, bushy tail assists the body in maintaining balance. When the cold winter comes, the soil is frozen hard and difficult to dig, the star-nosed mole living in the wetland often follows the previously dug tunnel to swim into the water, using its high-level underwater hunting skills to find food.
Night owl and day lurker, relying on smell to know where there is food, eat full then three or two chat and chase, hungry or find new delicious food, then join together to eat. It belongs to a small group, with a strong sense of unity. It is very smart, very flexible and cunning, afraid of people, mischievous and secretive, when digging out, two front paws crawl on the edge of the hole, look left and right, ensure safety before digging out. It likes to establish a fixed route between nest, food and water source, to avoid danger. Its vision is strong, although most of the time it doesn't use its eyes to determine the location of the prey, the star-nosed mole's eyes can see objects about 100 meters in the deep sea. Its sense of smell is sensitive, the star-nosed mole's nose can search for prey in the water. This animal's perception system is very sensitive, even it can detect the movement of animals within 8 milliseconds.
The star-nosed mole mainly lives in damp shallow ground, spanning the eastern United States and Canada. It feeds on small invertebrates, aquatic insects, worms and mollusks. Like other moles, it searches for worms in the soil, but it also feeds on various small invertebrates and insect larvae in the nutrient-rich mud and decaying leaves in the wetland, and it often dives into the turbid water of the pond and stream to grab prey. Like other moles, the star-nosed mole is active day and night, with extremely high energy, even in winter, it still maintains vitality.
The star-nosed mole has a specially adapted brain, which may help to answer the long-standing questions about the structure and evolution of the nervous system of mammals.
The star-nosed mole's metabolism is very fast, always hungry, so this voracious star-nosed mole must be able to find enough prey to survive the cold winter in the north.
The star-nosed mole usually breeds in late winter or early spring, and in early spring to late spring, the female star-nosed mole usually gives birth to a litter of 3-7 pups.
75100% 50%
3-7
