Star-Nosed Mole
The fastest forager on Earth — and the only mammal that can smell underwater
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Superpower
The star-nosed mole's 22 pink tentacles contain over 25,000 microscopic sensory receptors (Eimer's organs) in a patch smaller than a human fingertip — more tactile resolution than any other known mammal surface. It can identify and eat prey in 120 milliseconds, faster than the human eye can process a single video frame. It blows air bubbles into water, then immediately re-inhales them to smell what's in the water — the only mammal confirmed to smell underwater.
Overview
Condylura cristata is a small North American mole found in wet meadows, stream banks, and marshes. Unlike other moles, it's semi-aquatic and hunts underwater as readily as underground. It is functionally nearly blind — its eyes detect only light and dark — but has the most sensitive touch organ of any mammal. In the brain's somatosensory cortex, the star occupies more representational area than the entire rest of the mole's body. The 22 tentacles move independently at extraordinary speed, touching up to 13 different spots per second when the mole is hunting.
Found in
Wet meadows, marshes, bogs, and stream banks of the northeastern United States and eastern Canada, from the Atlantic coast west to the Dakotas. Requires high water tables and soft soil for tunneling.
Things worth knowing
- 1
The 22 tentacles are divided into 11 pairs, but the innermost pair at the bottom of the star has disproportionately more Eimer's organs — acting as a kind of 'fovea of touch,' a high-resolution center for final inspection of potential food items.
- 2
The star nose is folded forward and pressed flat when the mole is actively digging — it unfolds and spreads wide only when the mole is in foraging mode or water.
- 3
A star-nosed mole's average time from first tactile contact with prey to swallowing is 120 milliseconds. Neurologically, this is remarkably fast — some researchers suggest the decision to eat is made before the sensory signal has fully processed in the cortex.
- 4
The mole's saliva contains a toxin that paralyses earthworms without killing them — allowing them to be stored alive in a larder for later consumption.
- 5
The star-nosed mole was only confirmed to smell underwater in 2006, when researchers filmed it blowing and re-inhaling bubbles on prey and then verified using scent-trail experiments that the behavior actually transmitted olfactory information.