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The hairy-tailed mole (''Parascalops breweri''), also known as Brewer's mole, is a medium-sized
This animal has dark grey fur with lighter underparts, a pointed nose and a short, hairy tail. It is about in length, including a tail, and weighs about . Its front paws are broad and spade-shaped, specialized for digging. It has 44 teeth. Its eyes are covered by fur and its ears are not external. Its feet and snout are pinkish, but become white in older animals. Several adaptations to living primarily underground can be seen in the hairy-tailed mole. Its pelage is very dense and silky, and its feet are broad, flat, and heavy. Moles rely very little on their eyesight and have very small optic nerves. To accommodate its lack of vision, the hairy-tailed mole has sensitive whiskers and hairs on the tip of its nose and feet to feel its surroundings.
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
n mole. It is the only member of the genus ''Parascalops''. The species epithet ''breweri'' refers to Thomas Mayo Brewer, an American naturalist.
Taxonomy
Despite inhabiting North America, studies indicate that it is not closely related to the two other North American scalopine moles ('' Scalopus'' and '' Scapanus''), but rather to the two Chinese scalopine moles ('' Scapanulus'' and '' Alpiscaptulus''). This indicates that the two Chinese moles likely descend from a migration from North America back into Eurasia, where the scalopine moles originated. Some studies have suggested placing ''Parascalops'', ''Scapanulus'', and ''Alpiscaptulus'' into a single subtribe Parascalopina.Appearance
This animal has dark grey fur with lighter underparts, a pointed nose and a short, hairy tail. It is about in length, including a tail, and weighs about . Its front paws are broad and spade-shaped, specialized for digging. It has 44 teeth. Its eyes are covered by fur and its ears are not external. Its feet and snout are pinkish, but become white in older animals. Several adaptations to living primarily underground can be seen in the hairy-tailed mole. Its pelage is very dense and silky, and its feet are broad, flat, and heavy. Moles rely very little on their eyesight and have very small optic nerves. To accommodate its lack of vision, the hairy-tailed mole has sensitive whiskers and hairs on the tip of its nose and feet to feel its surroundings.
Habitat
It is found in forested and open areas with dry loose soils in eastern Canada and the northeastern United States. Since it is afossorial
A fossorial () animal is one adapted to digging which lives primarily, but not solely, underground. Some examples are badgers, naked mole-rats, clams, meerkats, and mole salamanders, as well as many beetles, wasps, and bees.
Prehistoric eviden ...
mammal, it needs moist but well-drained soil so that it can dig easily. The hairy-tailed mole prefers deciduous and coniferous woods, oldfields, and roadsides.
Behavior
The hairy-tailed mole is cathemeral. Since it lives primarily underground in shallow tunnels it can forage throughout the day and will also forage on the ground's surface at night. The hairy-tailed mole is more active near the surface during warmer summer months and digs deeper underground in the cooler fall and winter months. This mole spends most of its time underground, foraging in shallowburrow
An Eastern chipmunk at the entrance of its burrow
A burrow is a hole or tunnel excavated into the ground by an animal to construct a space suitable for habitation or temporary refuge, or as a byproduct of locomotion. Burrows provide a form of sh ...
s for insects and their larvae and earthworms. It emerges at night to feed. It is active year-round. Predators include owls, fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelv ...
es and large snakes.
This animal is mainly solitary except during mating in early spring. The female has a litter of 4 to 5 young in a deep burrow. This mole may live 3 to 4 years.
Diet
Hairy-tailed moles areinsectivore
A robber fly eating a hoverfly
An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects.
The first vertebrate insectivores wer ...
s and have been shown to starve if vegetable matter is the only food source available. The hairy-tailed mole's diet is mostly grubs, earthworms, beetle larvae, slug
Slug, or land slug, is a common name for any apparently shell-less terrestrial gastropod mollusc. The word ''slug'' is also often used as part of the common name of any gastropod mollusc that has no shell, a very reduced shell, or only a smal ...
s, and ants, particularly when other food sources are not available.
References