Field guide to the most commonly encountered mammals and birds

Here, we provide some basic information regarding commonly observed species (plus some others about which we have had queries).  

Feel free to contact us by email if you have any questions regarding species you have encountered on the site.

For more information about mammals, we recommend the Mammal Society's species hub, here. For birds, excellent resources are available from the RSPB (here) and the BTO (here).

 

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European Mole

Scientific name:  Talpa europaea

Family: Talpidae

Appearance:  The European Mole is distinctive in appearance with dense black (usually) fur, a long, pink snout, small eyes and without visible, external ears. Its legs and feet are ideally adapted for digging and burrowing with forelimbs that resemble spades and end in long claws. 

Size: Head and body 12-17 cm; Tail 2-4 cm; Weight 70-130 g. 

Natural history: Although the animals themselves are rarely seen above ground they leave evidence of their presence everywhere. Molehills dot the landscape in most habitats where burrowing is possible. The conical mounds of earth are made up of the spoil from burrowing near the surface of the soil. The tunnels they excavate act as traps for the soil invertebrates which make up their diet. These are mainly earthworms, but they also eat insects, centipedes and millipedes. Moles are known to collect and store earthworms in a special chamber or ‘larder’ for later consumption.

Mole breeding season starts in April and the young are born in May and June. A single litter of 3 to 4 young are born blind and naked. They start to grow fur at around 14 days and their eyes open after about 3 weeks. They disperse at 5 to 6 weeks of age and it is at this time that moles are most likely to be seen above ground as the juveniles look for a territory of their own.

 

 (C) Joachim S. Müller (shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license)

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