58 



YOSEMITE NATURE NOTES 



From "Mam mil I of Lake Taboe" /»> Robert T. Ore. Courtesy of publisher, California Academy of Sciencei. 



MOLE AT WORK 



spade-like feet, turned sidewise and 

 equipped with strong, thick nails, form 

 a powerful digging apparatus. A mole 

 can dig itself out of sight before your 

 very eyes, seeming to melt into the earth! 

 The fur is short, thick and reversible as 

 to "lay" so it is not rubbed the wrong 

 way whether the animal is traveling for- 

 ward or backward. The mouth is placed 

 well on the under side, which would tend 

 to keep dirt out when the animal is dig- 

 ging. Moles have eyes, but they are small 

 and not well developed. 



Two kinds of tunnels are made and 

 used. The low, raised ridges, just barely 

 cracking the surface, are familiar to gar- 

 deners and golfers. At certain seasons, 

 usually just after a heavy snow melts in 

 the spring, these are quite common on 

 lawns and the floor of the forest in Yo- 

 scmitc Valley. They may or may not be 

 re-used ?fter construction. The second 

 type of run is a system of subsurface tun- 

 nels, perhaps a foot or more in the 

 ground. 



Construction of the "deep" tunnels re- 

 quires disposal of soil removed. At inter- 

 vals a lateral passage is dug to the sur- 

 face, dirt carried up and pushed out 



through the hole As the action is re- 

 peated, tarth piles up on the surface of 

 the ground. At no time does the mole 

 expose itself while doing this. Rather than 

 coming out on top, it continues to push 

 the material up from the bottom directly 

 out of the hole. The dirt thus falls uni- 

 formly around the outside, with the hole 

 plugged up, so that a mole hill is sym- 

 metrical, like a volcanic cone. This is an 

 important difference between a mole hill 

 and a pocket gopher mound (see p. 73). 

 Like that of the gopher, under natural 

 conditions, the work of moles brings 

 about important aeration and reworking 

 of the soil. 



The chief food is insects, worms and 

 similar animals. Little vegetable matter 

 enters into the diet of the Yosemite mole. 

 It forages widely for enough to eat, 

 mainly in fairly dry meadows, the floor 

 of open forest, or in lawns. In suitable 

 habitats, the Yosemite mole has been 

 found from the lower elevations of the 

 park on the west up to 8600 feet (Tuol- 

 umne Meadows) . 



The extremely subterranean life of the 

 Yosemite mole undoubtedly contributes 

 greatly to its safety from attack by other 



