46 ANIMAL LIFE IN THE YO SEMITE 



considerable depth, conditions would certainly seem unfavorable for active 

 existence of moles. But whether or not those animals become dormant, 

 as do the chipmunks, we do not know. 



Though there is no one kind of territory save solid rock where moles 

 are absent, more of their work is to be found in dryish meadowlands than 

 elsewhere. One runway was found in the gravelly ground beneath the 

 boulder talus along the base of the north wall of Yosemite Valley. The 

 dry needle- and leaf -strewn ground of the forest floor is often extensively 

 marked by surface runways. The concentration of moles in these places 

 is undoubtedly due to the greater abundance and accessibility there of 

 suitable food. 



The breeding season of moles generally, in California, is in the early 

 spring. A male captured at Snelling January 9, 1915, was in breeding 

 condition ; a nearly grown young male Avas collected at the same place on 

 May 29, 1915. Two individuals collected on June 2, 1915, 3 miles east of 

 Coulterville and in Yosemite Valley, respectively, were, to judge by the 

 unworn condition of their teeth, animals born during the current season. 

 Another juvenal mole was obtained 3 miles east of Coulterville on June 6. 

 These data suggest that the breeding season at the levels indicated is early, 

 probably just at the end of the winter months. 



As already intimated the mole's diet consists almost exclusively of 

 animal matter. In lowland districts, earthM^orms probably constitute a 

 large portion of its fare. For example, the stomach of a mole trapped by 

 one of our party at Snelling, January 9, 1915, contained "long sections 

 of earthworms ' ' together with some ' ' dirt. ' ' As earthworms are relatively 

 scarce or absent in the higher mountains the moles there must feed on other 

 sorts of 'worms.' Elsewhere it is known that they eat the larvae of certain 

 insects, such as cutworms (moth larvae), and it is probable that, in the 

 higher mountains, too, such larvae form part of the mole's bill of fare. 



A "Macabee" gopher trap set in a surface runway of a mole on the 

 sandy 'second bottom' at El Portal on November 27, 1914, caught a mole 

 during the night. When the trap was examined on the following morning 

 the trapped mole had been completely defleshed, the skull was almost clean 

 save for ligaments, and the skin was turned inside out leaving an almost 

 perfect skeleton. This probably was the work of another mole, though 

 there is the possibility that a shrew, following the mole's run, was 

 responsible. 



The mole, it will be seen from the above account, occupies a very 

 different niche from that of the gopher. Yet the two inhabit the ground ; 

 and in their regular existence both promote in various ways the develop- 

 ment of soil and, consequently, conditions that are favorable to plant 

 growth. This principle has been set forth in detail in the chapter on the 

 gopher, (See p. 141.) 



