Moles (lat. Talpidae) unique animals living in the thickness of the Earth. These are blind animals, common throughout the Euro-Asian continent, also in North America. Krotov does not like gardeners and gardeners lovers-small pests break through the holes, which is why they bring irreparable harm to plants and crops.
Appearance and features
All representatives of the family belong to underground animals. The main time they live underground, occasionally appear on the surface.
Moles have an elongated, oblong body and a small head with a nose stretched into a proboscis. These are animals with short paws. They have underdeveloped hind limbs, the front are slightly dilated and turned out. Large, widely arranged fingers with flat claws are located on the front limbs.
The blind mole grows in length as much as possible up to 12 cm. It has a short tail, not more than 3 cm long and weight only 30 g.
The peculiarity of the blind mole is the complete absence of the eyes and the ear shells. The mammalian animal is perfectly developed smell and touch. The nose and tail of the mole are equipped with sensitive hairs.
The animal prevails black or dark brown color of wool. The pile easily lies in any direction, due to which the mole can easily move forward and backward in narrow burrows. He does not have to turn around.
At the same time, the blind mole, which appears on the surface of the soil, turns into a clumsy and clumsy animal, which is why it is at risk of being caught by a predator.
Where the lifestyle lives
The blind mole is distributed to the entire Caucasian Isthmus from the Targo to the Transcaucasia; The range enters Turkey and, probably, to Northern Iran (along the southern coast of the Caspian).
Moles are insectivorous animals that actively behave all year round. The life of a mole in nature completely passes underground. The female even brings cubs in the hole at a depth of 1.5-2 m.
Scientists who study this animal do not know everyone about them, due to the hardness of the mole.
Moles settle in loose wet land, where it is convenient for them to break deep tunnels. Molest moves can go deep into 20 cm. Blind underground inhabitants do not rush in the ground, but break them off their paws, pushing excess soil to the surface, forming mole.
The mole climbs to a depth in several cases:
Moles tend to lay their tunnels at the depths at which they live if there is no urgent need to deepen. The usual small depth of moves gives animals the opportunity to calmly breathe and saturate their homes with oxygen.
What they eat
The power of underground animals consists of slugs, rainworms, snails, larvae and insects that hide in the outback of the Earth, also prefer decayed foliage. I do not disdain animals with small fish, mollusks and other underwater living creatures.
The number of meals of meals reaches 5-6 times a day, while the weight of one portion of worms and insects can vary within 20-30 g. Per day, the amount of living creatures can exceed 90-100 g. After each meal, the animals turn into a ball and fall asleep. The duration of sleep is 3-4 hours, during which time food is digested.
The summer period due to heat leads to the acceleration of metabolism, which is why the animals eat intensively. Increased metabolism leads to the fact that in the summer animals can eat twice as much as at another time of the year. Every 14-17 hours, moles should receive a new portion of food. Hunger can lead to the death of an underground animal.
When you catch the worm, the mole eats it entirely or tears it into small pieces. Before the meal, the starship necessarily squeezes the earth from the body of the worm.
Propagation and offspring
Moles propagate once a year. The mating of blind moles falls on February-March, when snow has not yet passed. Females bear cubs for 30 days. Usually born from 1 to 5 small beasts. Animals reach the size of an adult individual in a month, after which they leave the nest.
Despite such a small number of cubs and reproduction once a year the number of mole in the territory occurs quickly. The female gives birth deep underground, therefore, no predators threaten her offspring, in fact, all the animals remain alive.
The life expectancy of a blind mole is 3-4 years.
Natural enemies
In the conditions where the moles live, almost no one threatens them. If the mole appears on the surface of the earth, it can become the prey of dogs, martens, raccoons or birds of prey. The main enemies of the underground inhabitants: flood, flood, drought and fires. Very often animals die because of people who can destroy underground animals by accident or intentionally.
Kunitsa is an enemy of a blind small mole
Interesting Facts
Moles are considered unique and amazing animals in their own way. Many interesting facts are known about animals, but to this day, they are considered not fully studied by the view.
What is interesting to know about moles:
At first glance, it may seem that there are a lot of harm from moles. On the other hand, they will be very useful in garden activities, as they feed on worms and other insects that harm crops. These animals are not terrible to man, they spend most of their lives underground.
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