Mole (animal)

Not to be confused with Nevus.

The velvet mole ~ Elinor Wylie

Moles are small mammals adapted to a subterranean lifestyle. They have cylindrical bodies, velvety fur, very small, inconspicuous eyes and ears, reduced hindlimbs, and short, powerful forelimbs with large paws adapted for digging.

The word "mole" refers to any species in the family Talpidae, from the Latin word for mole, talpa. Moles are found in most parts of North America, Europe and Asia.

Moles may be viewed as pests to gardeners, but they provide positive contributions to soil, gardens, and ecosystems, including soil aeration, feeding on slugs and small creatures that eat plant roots, and providing prey for other wildlife. They eat earthworms and other small invertebrates in the soil.

Quotes

• If you would keep your soul
    From spotted sight or sound,
  Live like the velvet mole:
    Go burrow underground.
  And there hold intercourse
    With roots of trees and stones,
  With rivers at their source,
    And disembodied bones.
  • Elinor Wylie, "The Eagle and the Mole"

• For like a mole I journey in the dark,
    A-travelling along the underground
  From my Pillar'd Halls and broad Suburbean Park,
    To come the daily dull official round;
  And home again at night with my pipe all alight,
    A-scheming how to count ten bob a pound.
  • John Davidson, "Thirty Bob a Week"
  • Ballads and Songs (1894)

• Save me from curious Conscience, that still lords
  Its strength for darkness, burrowing like a mole;
  • John Keats, "To Sleep"