Raccoon

All raccoons are nocturnal and omnivorous, eating berries, insects, eggs and small animals. Raccoons sometimes wash, or douse, their food in water before eating it. It is unknown why raccoons perform dousing, but cleaning food is unlikely to be the reason. Studies have found that raccoons engage in dousing motions when water is unavailable; researchers note that captive raccoons are more likely than wild raccoons to douse food. It has been suggested that captive raccoons are mimicking fishing and shellfish-foraging behaviors. It may also be that the raccoon is searching for unwanted material, as water is thought to heighten their sense of touch.

As city dwellers in the United States and Canada increasingly move into primary or second homes in erstwhile rural areas, raccoons are often considered pests because they forage in trash receptacles. The raccoon has also adapted well to city life, and in cities such as Toronto the raccoon is, after the grey squirrel the most common urban pest. Introduced into Germany in the 19th century, raccoons seeking food in wine cellars and storage areas have become a threat to the country's wine industry. Beginning in April 1934 raccoons, which were being commercially farmed in Germany for their then-fashionable fur, were experimentally released into the wild . Population growth greatly accelerated in 1945 when disruption of the infrastructure led to numerous raccoons escaping from farms across Germany. Because they seemed to have minimal impact on forest ecology, raccoons were a protected species. Lately, however, the population density in some regions may have reached 100 raccoons per square kilometer and hunters have been offered rewards to cull the animals.

Diseases

Raccoons can carry Baylisascaris roundworm, distemper, and rabies. Of the approximately 8,000 documented animal rabies cases in the United States, raccoons constitute approximately 50% (Krebs et al. 1996, pp. 2031-2044).

Skunk

Skunks are nocturnal, and are solitary animals when not breeding, though they may gather together to keep warm in communal dens in the coldest part of their range. During the day they shelter in burrows that they dig with their powerful front claws, or in other man-made or natural hollows as the opportunity arises. Both sexes occupy overlapping home ranges through the greater part of the year; typically 2 to 4 km² for females, up to 20 km² for males.

Unlike the fictional "Flower" in the movie Bambi, real skunks do not hibernate in the winter. However they do remain generally inactive and feed rarely. They often overwinter in a huddle of one male and multiple (as many as twelve) females. The same winter den is often repeatedly used.

Although they have excellent senses of smell and hearing — vital attributes in a nocturnal carnivore — they have poor vision. They cannot see objects more than about 3 metres away with any clarity, which makes them very vulnerable to road traffic. Roughly half of all skunk deaths are caused by humans, as roadkill, or as a result of shooting and poisoning. They are short-lived animals: fewer than 10% survive for longer than three years.

Reproduction

Breeding usually takes place in early spring. Female skunks are induced ovulators, the male skunk mounts the female from behind and proceeds to bite the female on the back of the neck and back, which induces the female's ovulation. Females excavate a den ready for between one and four young to be born in May. The male plays no part in raising the young and may even kill them. A common scene in late spring and summer is a mother skunk followed by a line of her kits. By late July or early August the young disperse. When the young skunks meet again, they raise their tails vertically. After a little posturing they start to rub against each other, often rolling around in what appears to be an embrace. Older skunks seem less friendly to the young kits.

Grey/Red Squirrel

The Eastern Grey has also been introduced into a variety of locations on the west coast of North America, including San Francisco and the Peninsula area of San Mateo and Santa Clara counties south of the city. At the turn of the 20th century it was introduced into South Africa and England, spreading across the latter and leading to a reduction in the population of the native Red Squirrel. It has also been introduced to Italy, and the European Union is concerned that the grey squirrel will displace the Red Squirrel from parts of the European continent, as well. In the UK grey squirrels have no natural predators which has added to their rapid population growth and has led to the Grey Squirrel being classed all over the British Isles as a pest. In the UK, measures are being thought up to minimise the number of Grey Squirrels due to their effect on the Red Squirrel population. Ideas have included poisoning which could be brought in within 3 years.

Although the matter is controversial and complex, the main factor in the displacement of Red Squirrels by Grey Squirrels is thought to be competition for resources, leading to a decrease in fitness of the Red Squirrels on all measures (e.g. Wauters, Gurnell, Martinoli & Tosi, 2002). Eastern Grey squirrels tend to be larger and stronger than Red Squirrels and have been shown to have a greater ability to put on fat before the winter. These factors are thought to result in Grey Squirrels competing effectively for a larger share of the available food, resulting in lower survival and breeding rates in Red Squirrels. Parapox virus may also be a strongly contributing factor. Red squirrels are fatally affected by this disease, while Grey Squirrels are unaffected but thought to be carriers. Red Squirrels are also more affected by habitat destruction and fragmentation than the more adaptable Grey Squirrel, which has also contributed to a decrease in their numbers and a linked increase in the numbers of Eastern Grey Squirrels. In Italy, Grey Squirrels have been found to rob the caches of Red Squirrels.

The Eastern Grey Squirrel is common throughout most of its natural range and wherever it has been introduced. It readily becomes tolerant of humans and learns to take food left or offered by picnickers.

As its name suggests, the Eastern Grey Squirrel's fur is predominantly grey, but it can have a reddish tinge. Its belly is white. They have a large bushy tail. Particularly in urban situations where predation risk is reduced, both albino and melanistic forms of the Eastern Grey Squirrel are quite often found. At the northern limits of its range in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec, the melanistic form tends to be more common than the grey form.

Like many members of the family Sciuridae, the Eastern Grey Squirrel is a scatter-hoarder, that is, it hoards food in numerous small caches, for recovery later. Some of these caches (especially those made near the site of a sudden abundance of food) are retrieved within hours or days, for re-burial in a more secure site. Others are not retrieved until months later. It has been estimated that each squirrel makes several thousand caches each season. The squirrels have very accurate spatial memory for the locations of these caches, and use distant and nearby landmarks to retrieve them. Olfaction is used only once the squirrel is within close range (a few centimetres at most) of the cache site.

Woodchuck/Groundhog

The Groundhog (Marmota monax), also known as the Woodchuck, or the Whistlepig (particularly in the Southern United States), is a rodent of the family Sciuridae, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots. Most marmots live in rocky and mountainous areas, but the Woodchuck is a lowland creature. It is widely distributed in North America, from Alaska to Alabama and Georgia. In the west it is found only in Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia and northern Washington. In the United States and Canada, there is a Groundhog Day celebration that gives the groundhog some added popularity.

The name woodchuck has nothing etymologically to do with wood. It stems from an Algonquian name for the animal (possibly Narragansett), wuchak. The apparent relationship between the two words has led to the common tongue twister, "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? — A woodchuck would chuck as much wood as a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood."

Groundhogs are typically 40 to 65 cm long (including a 15 cm tail) and weigh 2 to 4 kg. In areas with fewer natural predators and large quantities of alfalfa, they can grow to 32 inches (80 cm) and 30 lb (14 kg). They can live up to six years in the wild, and ten years in captivity.

The groundhog is one of a small number of species that have grown greatly in numbers since the arrival of European settlers in North America, since the clearing of forests provided it with much suitable habitat. It prefers open country and the edges of woodland. As a consequence, it is a familiar animal to many people in the United States and Canada.

Groundhogs are excellent burrowers, using burrows for sleeping, rearing young, and hibernating. The burrows generally have two exits, and the groundhog rarely ventures far from one of them for safety. While preferring to flee from would-be predators, the groundhog is known to viciously defend its burrow when invaded by predators such as skunks, foxes, weasels or domestic dogs. It can inflict quite a bit of damage with its two large incisors and front claws, especially when the predator is at a disadvantage inside the burrow.

Beaver

Beavers are semi-aquatic rodents native to North America and Europe. They are the only members of the family Castoridae, which contains a single genus, Castor. Genetic research has shown the European and North American beaver populations to be distinct species and that hybridization is unlikely.

Beavers are best known for their natural trait of building dams in rivers and streams, and building their homes (aka lodges) in the eventual artificial pond. They are the second largest rodents, after the capybara. Beavers continue to grow throughout life. Adult specimens weighing over 25 kg (55 lb) are not uncommon. Females are as large as or larger than males of the same age, which is uncommon among mammals.
 

The habitat of the beaver is the riparian zone inclusive of stream bed. The habit of the beaver for hundreds of thousands of years in the Northern Hemisphere has been to keep these watery systems healthy and in good repair, although to a human observer, seeing all of the downed trees, it might sometimes seem that the critters are doing just the opposite. Beaver work as a keystone species in an ecosystem by creating wetlands that are utilized by many other species. The ability of beavers to radically alter landscape is amazing. Next to humans, no other extant animal does more to shape its landscape. Introduced to an area without its natural predators, as in Tierra del Fuego, beavers have flooded thousands of acres of land and are considered an unstoppable plague.

Dams
The dams are created both as a protection against predators, e.g., coyotes, wolves and bears, and to provide easy access to food during winter. It is both the sound of water in motion and the current that stimulates the beavers to build. If, for example, a pipe is placed under the dam to drain it the beavers may stuff it with a tree trunk unless the pipe inlet is protected with a large cage-like filter. They may repair any damage to the dam and build it higher as long as the sound continues. However, in times of high water, they often allow spillways in the dam to flow freely. Beavers have even attempted to build dams in response to recordings of water flowing even in the absence of water.

Destroying a beaver dam without removing the beavers takes a lot of effort, especially if the dam is downstream of an active lodge. Beavers can rebuild such primary dams overnight, but may not defend secondary dams as vigorously.

Lodges
The ponds created by well-maintained dams help isolate the beavers' home, their lodge, which is also created from severed branches and mud. The lodge has underwater entrances to make entry nearly impossible for any other animal (however, muskrats have been seen living inside beaver lodges with the beavers who made it). A very small amount of the lodge is actually used as a living area. Contrary to popular belief, beavers actually dig out their den with an underwater entrance after they finish building the dam and lodge structure. There are typically two dens within the lodge, one for drying off after exiting the water, and another, drier one where the family actually lives.
 

Bats

Bats are mammals in the order Chiroptera. Their most distinguishing feature is that their forelimbs are developed as wings, making them the only mammal in the world capable of flight; other mammals, such as flying squirrels and gliding phalangers, can glide for limited distances but are not capable of true sustainable flight. The word Chiroptera can be translated from the Greek words for "hand wing," as the structure of the open wing is very similar to an outspread human hand, with a membrane (patagium) between the fingers that also stretches between hand and body.

About 70 percent of bats are insectivorous. Most of the remainder feed on fruits and their juices; three bat species eat blood and some prey on vertebrates. These bats include the leaf-nosed bats (Phyllostomidae) of central America and South America, and the related bulldog bats (Noctilionidae) that feed on fish.
Some of the smaller bat species are important pollinators of some tropical flowers. Indeed, many tropical plants are now found to be totally dependent on them, not just for pollination, but for spreading their seeds by eating the resulting fruits. This role explains environmental concerns when a bat is introduced in a new setting.
Studies also show that bats make all kinds of sounds to communicate with each other. Scientists in the field have listened to bats and have been able to identify some sounds with some behavior bats will make right after the sounds are made.

Vectors for pathogens

Bats are natural reservoirs or vectors for a large number of zoonotic pathogens including rabies, SARS, Nipah virus, West Nile virus and possibly ebola virus. Their high mobility, broad distribution, social behaviour (communal roosting, fission-fusion social structure) and close evolutionary relationship to humans make bats favourable hosts and disseminators of disease. Many species also appear to have a high tolerance for habouring pathogens and often do not develop disease while infected.

Only 0.5% of bats carry rabies. However, of the very few cases of rabies reported in the United States every year, most are caused by bat bites. Although most bats do not have rabies, those that do may be clumsy, disoriented, and unable to fly, which makes it more likely that they will come into contact with humans. Although one should not have an unreasonable fear of bats, one should avoid handling them or having them in one's living space, as with any wild animal. If a bat is found in living quarters near a child, mentally handicapped person, intoxicated person, sleeping person, or pet, the person or pet should receive immediate medical attention for rabies. Bats have very small teeth and can bite a sleeping person without necessarily being felt.

If a bat is found in a house and the possibility of exposure cannot be ruled out, the bat should be sequestered and an animal control officer called immediately, so that the bat can be analyzed. This also applies if the bat is found dead. If it is certain that nobody has been exposed to the bat, it should be removed from the house. The best way to do this is to close all the doors and windows to the room except one to the outside. The bat should soon leave.
 

Chipmunk

Chipmunk is the common name for any small squirrel-like rodent species of the genus Tamias in the family Sciuridae. About 23 species fall under this title, with one species in northeastern Asia, one in the eastern portions of Canada and the US, and the rest native to the western part of North America. The name may have originally been spelled "chitmunk" (perhaps from the Ojibwe word ajidamoo, meaning "red squirrel"). However, the earliest form cited in the Oxford English Dictionary (from 1842) is "chipmonk". Other early forms include "chipmuck" and "chipminck", and in the 1830s they were also referred to as "chip squirrels", possibly in reference to the sound they make. They are also called striped squirrel or ground squirrel; however, the name "ground squirrel" is more usually kept for the genus Spermophilus, though Tamias and Spermophilus are only two of the 13 genera of ground-living sciurids.

Eastern chipmunks mate in early spring and again in early summer to produce two litters, each of four to five young, but western chipmunks only breed once a year. The young emerge from the burrow after about six weeks and strike out on their own within the next two weeks.

Though they are commonly depicted with their paws up to the mouth, eating peanuts, or more famously their cheeks bulging out on either side, chipmunks eat a much more diverse range of foods than just nuts. Their omnivorous diet consists of grain, nuts, birds' eggs, fungi, worms, and insects. Come autumn, many species of chipmunk begin to stockpile these goods in their burrows, for winter. Other species make multiple small caches of food. These two kinds of behavior are called larder hoarding and scatter hoarding. Larder hoarders usually live in their nests until spring.
 

These small squirrels fulfill several important functions in forest ecosystems. Their activities with regards to harvesting and hoarding tree seeds play a crucial role in seedling establishment. They also consume many different kinds of fungi, including those involved in symbiotic mycorrhizal associations with trees, and are an important vector for dispersal of the spores of subterranean sporocarps (truffles) which have co-evolved with these and other mycophagous mammals and thus lost the ability to disperse their spores through the air.

Chipmunks play an important role as prey for various predatory mammals and birds, but are also opportunistic predators themselves, particularly with regard to bird eggs and nestlings. In Oregon, Mountain Bluebirds (Siala currucoides) have been observed energetically mobbing chipmunks that they see near their nest trees.

Chipmunks construct expansive burrows which can be more than 3.5 m in length with several well-concealed entrances. The sleeping quarters are kept extremely clean as shells and feces are stored in refuse tunnels.

If unmolested they often become bold enough to accept food from the hands of humans. The temptation to pick up or pet any wild animal should be strictly avoided. While rabies is exceptionally rare, if not non-existent, in rodents, chipmunk bites can transmit virulent and dangerous bacterial infections.
 

Deer

The White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), also known as the Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer found throughout most of the continental United States, southern Canada, Mexico, Central America and northern portions of South America as far south as Peru. The species is most common east of the American cordillera, and is absent from much of the western United States, including Nevada, Utah and California. It does, however, survive in the Northern and Canadian Rocky Mountain regions of United States and Canada, and in the Willamette Valley and Columbia River delta of Oregon and Southwestern Washington (endangered). There are also populations of white-tailed deer that inhabit the mountain forests of Arizona, New Mexico, and West Texas extending into Mexico. As a result of introductions, white-tailed deer are found also in localised areas of northern Europe. White-tailed deer are generalists and can adapt to a wide variety of habitats. Although most often thought of as forest animals depending on relatively small openings and edges, white-tailed deer can equally adapt themselves to life in more open savanna and even sage communities as in Texas and in the Venezuelan llanos region.

The deer can be recognised by the characteristic white underside to its tail, which it shows as a signal of alarm by raising the tail during escape. The male (also known as a buck) usually weighs from 60 to 100 kg (130 to 220 pounds) but, in rare cases, animals in excess of 160 kg (350 pounds) have been recorded. The female (doe) usually weighs from 40 to 60 kg (90 to 130 pounds), but some can weigh as much as 75 or 80 kg (165 to 175 pounds). The deer's coat is a reddish-brown in the spring and summer, and turns to a grey-brown throughout the fall and winter. Only the mature males have antlers. Antlers begin to grow in early spring, covered with a highly vascularised tissue known as velvet. Bucks shed their antlers when all females have been bred, usually in late December or January. Females enter oestrus, colloquially called the rut, in the fall, normally in late October or early November, triggered mainly by declining photoperiod. Sexual maturation of females depends on population density. Females can mature in their first year, although this is unusual and would occur only at very low population levels. Most females mature at one or, sometimes, two years of age. Males compete for the opportunity of breeding females. Sparring among males determines a dominance hierarchy. Bucks will attempt to copulate with as many females as possible, losing physical condition since they barely eat or rest during the rut. The general geographical trend is for the rut to be shorter in duration at increased latitude. Females give birth to one or two spotted young, known as fawns in mid to late spring, generally in May or June. Fawns lose their spots during the first summer and will weigh from 20 to 35 kg by the first winter. Male fawns tend to be slightly larger and heavier than females.



 

Fox

A fox is a member of any of 27 species of small omnivorous canids. The animal most commonly called a fox in the Western world is the Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes), although different species of foxes can be found on almost every continent. The presence of foxes all over the globe has led to their appearance in the popular culture and folklore of many nations, tribes, and other cultural groups.

Fox terminology is different from that used for most canids. Male foxes are known as dogs, tods or reynard, females are referred to as vixens, and their young are called kits or cubs, as well as pups. A group of foxes is a skulk. The eponymous name 'Charlie' is derived from Charles James Fox who was a disliked landowner in the 18th century.

Most foxes live 2–3 years but can survive for up to 10 years, or longer in captivity. With most species roughly the size of a domestic cat, foxes are smaller than other members of the family Canidae, such as wolves, jackals, and domestic dogs. Recognizable characteristics also include pointed muzzles and bushy tails. Other physical characteristics vary according to their habitat. For example, the Desert Fox has large ears and short fur, whereas the Arctic Fox has small ears and thick, insulating fur.

Unlike many canids, foxes are not pack animals. They are solitary, opportunistic feeders that hunt live prey (especially rodents). Using a pouncing technique practiced from an early age, they are usually able to kill their prey quickly. Foxes also gather a wide variety of other foods ranging from grasshoppers to fruit and berries.

Foxes are nearly always extremely wary of humans, and are not kept as pets, but the Silver Fox was successfully domesticated in Russia after a 45 year selective breeding program. However, foxes are to be readily found in cities and domestic gardens



 

Coyote

The coyote (Canis latrans, meaning "barking dog", also prairie wolf [2]) is a member of the Canidae (dog) family and a relative of the domestic dog. Coyotes are native to North America and are only found in North America south to Costa Rica. European explorers first encountered these canines during their travels in the American Southwest. They may occasionally assemble in small packs, but normally hunt alone. Coyotes live an average of about 6 years. The word "coyote" was borrowed from Mexican Spanish, which itself borrowed the term from the Náhuatl (Aztec) word cóyotl (IPA /ˈkɔ.jɔtɬ/) which may have meant "singing dog".

Despite being extensively hunted, the coyote is one of the few medium-to-large-sized animals that has enlarged its territory since human encroachment began (another is the raccoon). Coyotes have moved into most of the areas of North America formerly occupied by wolves, and the "dog" observed foraging in a suburban trashcan may in fact be a coyote.Coyotes are essentially nocturnal, but they will occasionally hunt during the day unless threatened by predators or humans.

They are highly adaptable and live in a variety of different niches. Their behavior can vary widely depending on where they live, but in general they live and hunt singly or in monogamous pairs in search of small mammals including rabbits, mice, shrews, voles, and foxes. The coyote is an omnivore and adapts its diet to the available food sources including fruits, grasses, and vegetables along with small mammals. In Yellowstone National Park, before the reintroduction of the wolf, coyotes began to fill the wolf's ecological niche, and hunted in packs to bring down large prey.

Coyotes mate for life. They breed around the month of February and four to six pups are born in late April or early May. Both parents (and sometimes undispersed young from the previous year) help to feed the pups. At three weeks old the pups leave the den under close watch of their parents. Once the pups are eight to twelve weeks old they are taught to hunt. Families stay together through the summer but the young break apart to find their own territories by fall. They usually relocate within ten miles. The young are sexually mature at 1 year of age.

Hearing a coyote is much more common than seeing one. The calls a coyote makes are high-pitched and variously described as howls, yips, yelps and barks. These calls may be a long rising and falling note (a howl) or a series of short notes (yips). These calls are most often heard at dusk or night, less often during the day. Although these calls are made throughout the year, they are most common during the spring mating season and in the fall when the pups leave their families to establish new territories. Many people find these calls eerie or disturbing. As well, its howl can be very deceiving: due to the way the sound carries, it can seem as though it is in one place, when the coyote is really elsewhere.

In rural areas, coyotes will respond to human calls. This is most often after the coyotes have started a howling session. They will also respond to recorded howls. In some of these areas, the coyotes will stop and wait for the humans to stop before resuming their howling session, once they've figured out that it isn't one of them that's been calling to them. In areas where the coyotes have grown accustomed to humans calling back to them, they tend to continue with simpler calls back to the humans and return to more complex calls when the humans get tired of calling to them. Playing a recorded wolf howl will make them stop for up to an hour before they start in again (probably because wolves prey upon coyotes).

Coyotes also thrive in suburban settings and even some urban ones.
 

Opossum

The order Didelphimorphia contains the common opossums of the western hemisphere. Opossums probably diverged from the basic South American marsupials in the late Cretaceous or early Paleocene. A sister group is the Paucituberculata, or shrew opossums. They are commonly also called "possums", though that term is more correctly applied to Australian fauna of the suborder Phalangeriformes.

Didelphimorphs are small to medium-sized marsupials, about the size of a large house cat. They tend to be semi-arboreal omnivores, although there are many exceptions. Most members of this taxon have long snouts, a narrow braincase, and a prominent sagittal crest. The dental formula (one side of one jaw) includes 5 incisors (four on the lower jaw), 1 canine, 3 premolars and 4 tricuspid molars. By mammal standards, this is a very full jaw. The incisors are very small, the canines large.

Didelphimorphs have a plantigrade stance (feet flat on the ground) and the hind feet have an opposable digit with no claw. Like some primates, opossums have prehensile tails. The stomach is simple, with a small cecum. Opossum reproductive systems are extremely basic, with a reduced marsupium. This means that the young are born at a very early stage. The species are moderately sexually dimorphic with males usually being somewhat larger than females.

Didelphimorphs are opportunistic omnivores with a very broad range of diet. Their unspecialized biology, flexible diet and reproductive strategy make them successful colonizers and survivors in unsettled times. Originally native to the eastern United States, opossums were intentionally introduced into the west during the Great Depression, probably as a source of food. Their range has been expanding steadily northwards, thanks in part to more plentiful, man-made sources of fresh water, increased shelter from urban encroachment, and milder winters. Their range has extended into Ontario, Canada, and they have been found as far north as Toronto.

Opossums are usually nomadic, staying in one area as long as food and water are easily available. Though they will temporarily occupy abandoned burrows, they do not dig or put much effort into building their own. They favor dark, secure areas, below ground or above.

When threatened or harmed, they will "play possum", mimicking the appearance and smell of a sick or dead animal. The lips are drawn back, teeth are bared, saliva foams around the mouth, and a foul-smelling fluid is secreted from the anal glands. The physiological response is involuntary, rather than a conscious act. Their stiff, curled form can be prodded, turned over, and even carried away. Many injured opossums have been killed by well-meaning people who find a catatonic animal and assume the worst. If you find an injured or apparently dead opossum, the best thing to do is leave it in a quiet place with a clear exit path. In minutes or hours, the animal will regain consciousness and escape quietly on its own.

Adult opossums do not hang from trees by their tails, though babies may dangle temporarily. Their prehensile tails are not strong enough to support a mature adult's weight, though they often serve as a brace and a fifth limb when climbing. There are also confirmed accounts of the tail being used as a grip to carry bunches of leaves or bedding materials to the nest.

Opossums have a remarkably robust immune system, and show partial or total immunity to the venom of rattlesnakes, cottonmouths, and other pit vipers.[citation needed] Thanks to their lower blood temperature, rabies is almost unknown in opossums.

Moles

Moles are members of the family (Talpidae) of mammals in the order Insectivora that live underground, burrowing holes. Some species are aquatic or semi-aquatic. They have cylindrical bodies covered in fur with small or covered eyes; the ears are generally not visible. They feed on small invertebrate animals living under ground. Moles can be found in North America, Europe and Asia.
 

Moles are considered to be an agricultural pest in some countries , while in others such as Germany they are a protected species. Problems caused are cited as contamination of silage with soil particles making it unpalatable to animals, the covering of pasture with fresh soil reducing its size and yield , damage to agricultural machinery by the exposure of stones, damage to young plants through disturbance of the soil, weed invasion of pasture through exposure of fresh tilled soil, and damage to drainage systems and watercourses. Other species such as weasels and voles may use mole tunnels to gain access to enclosed areas or plant roots.

Moles that burrow in the lawns of humans can disturb the earth, raising molehills and causing enough aesthetic problems to be considered as pests. They do however benefit the soil by aerating and tilling it, adding to its fertility. Contary to popular belief, moles don't eat plant roots.

Moles are often said to be blind but this is incorrect. The mole has eyes and ears but they are incredibly small so they do not become filled with earth when digging. The eyes are the size of pinheads and are normally kept closed. Moles' eyesight is poor. They can see movement and tell light from dark, but cannot distinguish colours. The ears, with their openings hidden in the fur, do not protude outside the body. There is an area of bare pink skin on the snout that is very sensitive to touch. Sensitive pimples cover the surface, detecting tiny movements, temperature change, prey and other moles through scent. The mole's long canine teeth are sharp and pierce the hard outer skeleton of insect prey. The tail is held upwards to feel its way when running backwards in tunnels. Mole fur is very fine and velvety and usually black, it can point in any direction with ease, so is specially adapted for life in tunnels.