The Molecatcher


Moles

• Talpa Europaea is also known as the Common Mole with an estimated population in the UK of 33 million.
• A mole can weigh up to 130g and be 12cm in length & live for up to 5 years.
• It is an insectivore & feeds mostly on worms, insects, centipedes & sometimes mice & shrews.
• It lives in an underground tunnel system which it digs out forming a labyrinth of tunnels & chambers.
• A mole can dig 20-30 metres of new tunnel in a day & it uses the tunnels to find its prey.
• A molehill is the displaced earth pushed to the surface as a consequence of tunnel digging.
• A mole has a very high metabolism and feeds every four hours, in one day it can consume 75% of its weight in prey.
• Moles are solitary animals and will defend their territory to the death.
• The fox, owl, crow, stoat, weasel, cat are all natural predators of the mole.
• The mole has a highly developed spatial awareness (it can memorise precisley its labyrinth) & also an advanced sensitivity to vibrations & noise. It has limited vision but is not blind.
• In the UK the mole is classed as a pest and if caught alive it is illegal to release it back into the wild.
• Traditional trapping uses mechanical traps to swiftly dispatch the animal.
• The poison Strychnine Hydrochloride was banned in 2006 on the grounds it was unsafe for wildlife & caused unnecessary suffering to the mole.