Diet
A mole's diet primarily consists of earthworms and other small invertebrates found in the soil, and a variety of nuts. The mole runs are in reality 'worm traps', the mole sensing when a worm falls into the tunnel and quickly running along to kill and eat it. Because their saliva contains a toxin that can paralyze earthworms, moles are able to store their still-living prey for later consumption. They construct special underground "larders" for just this purpose; researchers have discovered such larders with over a thousand earthworms in them. Before eating earthworms, moles pull them between their squeezed paws to force the collected earth and dirt out of the worm's gut.
The star-nosed mole can detect, catch and eat food faster than the human eye can follow (under 0.3 seconds).
Read more about this topic: Mole (animal)
Famous quotes containing the word diet:
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—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“The pills are a mother, but better,
every color and as good as sour balls.
I’m on a diet from death.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“I learned from my two years’ experience that it would cost incredibly little trouble to obtain one’s necessary food, even in this latitude; that a man may use as simple a diet as the animals, and yet retain health and strength.... Yet men have come to such a pass that they frequently starve, not for want of necessaries, but for want of luxuries.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)