Maulwuerf - European Mole

Talpa europaea

Maulwuerf 4

Taupe D'Europe 4

Europäischer Maulwurf 4

European Mole 5

The European mole (Talpa europaea) is a mammal of the order Soricomorpha. It is also known as the common mole and the northern mole.

Habitat 5

While moles are typically found in tunnel systems, the European mole is not exclusively an underground dweller. In the spring and early summer when the young moles leave their mothers' burrows they must find new territory. This forces them to leave their burrow and they can either make new tunnel systems or enter existing systems. In the summer time, however, they are likely to burrow much more superficially. The superficial burrowing could be due in part to the soil that is much harder, which makes burrowing a greater challenge.

T. europaea have also been found to spend a lot of time at the sides of drainage lines and streams but do not inhabit flooded or dry soils. However, dry areas do become important when their normal habitats become flooded. Factors such as the type of soil, vegetation present, and altitude have no effect on the areas that moles choose to inhabit. The one factor that does greatly influence the mole population in a specific area is the abundance of earthworms. One would expect for the earthworm population to decrease as the moles feed, however no research has shown this to be true.

Sources and Credits

  1. (c) Bas Kers (NL), some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/21933510@N07/5833773069/
  2. (c) Peter O'Connor aka anemoneprojectors, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/anemoneprojectors/8976574088/
  3. (c) dackelprincess, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/dackelprincess/13883233154/
  4. (c) Paul Braun, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)
  5. Adapted by Paul Braun from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://www.inaturalist.org/guide_taxa/605105

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