The mole

📖 In short

The mole is a small, plump animal that spends almost its whole life underground. It has a long pointed nose, big wide hands like two shovels, and fur as soft as velvet. It's a fast digger that never gets tired!

🤩 Did you know?

Moles eat earthworms and insects, and can eat nearly their own weight every day.
The Russian desman is the biggest kind of mole, about 40 centimeters long with its tail.
The European mole weighs between 65 and 120 grams.
A mole stores worms in underground rooms to eat later.

🔎 Find out more

🌟 Shovels for hands

A mole's hands are wide and strong, with long claws, and it moves them like a swimmer to push the soil aside and dig long tunnels fast.

🔍 Tiny eyes

A mole's eyes are tiny and hidden in its fur, as it doesn't need to see much in the dark underground. It relies on touch and smell with its sensitive nose.

💡 Fur that goes both ways

A mole's fur is short and soft and lies forwards or backwards easily, so it can move forwards or backwards in its tunnel without soil catching in it.

🎯 Little mounds

When a mole digs, it pushes the extra soil up to the surface, so little mounds of earth appear in the garden, showing that it lives underneath.

🧩 Test yourself

1 Where does the mole live?

2 What does a mole dig with?

3 The Russian desman is the biggest kind of mole, about ?? centimeters long with its tail.

4 Which picture shows “The mole”?

🦁 Discover more

📷 Picture sources: Wikimedia Commons

Stanislaw Szydlo · CC BY-SA 3.0