Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to blow your mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Animalia Stupendium. My name is Argomandanes, wizard in
Speaker 2: exile the Triumvirate didn't quite work out, inventor of several
Speaker 2: common cants and tireless creature chronicler. However, mere monsters hold
Speaker 2: no mystery for me. These days. Dragons alas our drab
Speaker 2: m basilisks are boring. Instead, I turn my attention once
Speaker 2: more to the strange fauna of a land called Earth.
Speaker 2: Travel with me, a gentle reader, as we consider the.
Speaker 3: Mole common name mole scientific classification. Various pieces of the
Speaker 3: family talpa day frequency and range throughout North America and Eurasia.
Speaker 3: Size small, but with varying body sizes depending on species,
Speaker 3: diet insects, molluscs, and worms depending on species. Treasure hoard
Speaker 3: for some species earthworm larders challenge rating two.
Speaker 2: The family Talpidae contains a great many moles and even
Speaker 2: the semi aquatic desmond. While desmonds swim in the water
Speaker 2: to hunt their mostly insect prey, the rest of their
Speaker 2: talpid kin swim through the ground. Yes, the mole or
Speaker 2: the mold warps as they were once known among the earthlings,
Speaker 2: are highly evolved for burrowing life beneath the soil, where
Speaker 2: they thrive mostly on worms and insects. They are, in
Speaker 2: fact the super predator of earthworms, periodically driving them to
Speaker 2: the surface, where the worms will sooner take their chances
Speaker 2: with swooping birds than the all consuming snout of the mole.
Speaker 2: Their high metabolism requires them to eat NonStop day and night,
Speaker 2: digging upwards of one hundred feet of tunnels in a
Speaker 2: single day as they gobble up considerable portions of their
Speaker 2: body weight in worms or other creatures each day. The
Speaker 2: mole's saliva contains a special worm paralyzing toxin toxin damage,
Speaker 2: which allows them to paralyze surplus prey and store them
Speaker 2: away in a grizzly larder for later consumption. During leaner times,
Speaker 2: these larders may contain a thousand worms. These subterranean or
Speaker 2: fossorial moles boast per fit bodies for their lifestyle, short, cylindrical,
Speaker 2: and their velvety fur can lie in either direction, depending
Speaker 2: on which direction the creature is tunneled is you should
Speaker 2: never pedimal, but it would not be possible to pet
Speaker 2: their fur in the wrong direction. If you did. Additionally,
Speaker 2: their foreclaws are long and powerful for digging strokes, and
Speaker 2: each four par boasts an extra thumb called a prepolyx.
Speaker 2: Their eyes are small and their vision poor, sure enough,
Speaker 2: but theirs is not a realm of sight, but of
Speaker 2: smell and touch. We see this especially with the star
Speaker 2: nosed moles, so named for the twenty two hairless tentacle
Speaker 2: like rays that fan out around their nostrils, constantly questing,
Speaker 2: questing for worms, insects, and even fish. For the star
Speaker 2: nosed mole may also take to the water and is
Speaker 2: a strong swimmer with an excellent sense of smell, but
Speaker 2: its signature nose provides it with a sense of touch
Speaker 2: beyond that of any other mammal. While the human hand
Speaker 2: boasts a mere seventeen thousand nerve endings, the star nosed
Speaker 2: mole puts this to shame with something on the order
Speaker 2: of a hundred thousand nerve endings in the microscopic touch
Speaker 2: organs called IMA's organs that cover the rays of its
Speaker 2: starry snout, simply astonishing. There is also the not so
Speaker 2: small a matter of how to breathe. Underground moles have
Speaker 2: evolved specialized hemoglobin proteins that, through one method or another,
Speaker 2: are exceedingly good at binding with oxygen. Furthermore, they're better
Speaker 2: able to make use of the oxygen that they get
Speaker 2: while remaining more tall currant of elevated carbon dioxide levels
Speaker 2: beneath the soil. They have truly taken to the soil
Speaker 2: like well a fish to water. Gardeners, do not tremble
Speaker 2: at the sight of their wake in your topsoil, but
Speaker 2: rejoice that you are in the presence of such splendid
Speaker 2: form and function. Now there are more mysteries concerning moles
Speaker 2: to consider, But for now I must retire my wizard's
Speaker 2: quill and allow my familiars some respite. But I shall
Speaker 2: return with even more wonders of the natural world.
Speaker 4: Hi, this is Robert Lamb. Thanks to the wizard Agromandanese
Speaker 4: once more for joining us in this episode. Sources for
Speaker 4: this episode included why do star No's moles have a
Speaker 4: hand on their face? By Holly Cheating Welsh for the
Speaker 4: Natural History Museum, the website Animal Diverse Web Science Shock
Speaker 4: Burrowing moles breathe easily by Dolly J. Krishnaswami, Science dot Org.
Speaker 4: How the mole got its twelve Fingers, University of Zurich
Speaker 4: twenty eleven and the National Wildlife Federation. Thanks as always
Speaker 4: to the excellent JJ Possway for producing this episode. If
Speaker 4: you wish to contact Argo Mandanese with recommendations for future
Speaker 4: episodes or feedback, you can send an email to contact
Speaker 4: at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.
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