Ken Baker, Ph.D., Columnist Published 11:14 a.m. ET Feb. 11, 2020

Ken Baker and Cocoa(Photo: Submitted)

I would warn you that I do not attribute to nature either beauty or deformity, order or confusion. Only in relation to our imagination can things be called beautiful or ugly, well-ordered or confused. Baruch Spinoza

As mid-seventeenth century Dutch Enlightenment philosophers go, Spinoza would have to be considered something of a rebel. Expelled from Jewish society by age 23 for heretical views on the Hebraic Bible, his writings would soon enough also make the Catholic Churchs Index of Forbidden Books.

But an interesting guy. His writings on God, nature and human ethics would influence philosophical discussion for generations to come. A rabble-rouser to be sure he once refused a prestigious professorship saying, I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of the peace he nevertheless lived a quiet personal life, making do on a modest income as a lens grinder for microscopes and telescopes.

And yet, I suspect Spinozas no inherent beauty or deformity in nature axiom would, for many, be sorely tested by a first encounter with the star-nosed mole (Condylura cristata). Sporting a face that only a mother could love, the 22 tentacle-like rays adorning the tip of its nose constitute one of natures most curious, if not exactly beautiful to our eyes, solutions to the perennial problem of, Whats for dinner?

The Star-nosed Mole is a one of nature's oddities.(Photo: Submitted)

The rays of the star are covered with some 25,000 tactile Eimers organs, each of which is innervated by fourto eightnerve fibers. No more than two-fifths of an inch in diameter, the star is nonetheless much more sensitive to pressure and vibration than the human hand, which is only served by a total of about 17,000 touch fibers.

Neuroscientist Ken Catania of Vanderbilt University has played a pivotal role in uncovering many of the astonishing features of this small (about 7.5 inch) animals unique sensory system, which appears to be dialed in to finding and consuming minute prey like insect larvae better than any other North American mammal.

In addition to addressing how the moles brain processes the massive amount of information coming in from all those thousands of nerve fibers as the rays flail about brushing over every stone, root and potential prey item, Catanias lab has also shown the star-nosed to be the likely mammalian world champion at speed-eating.

From the time a ray first sweeps across a beetle grub, the brain distinguishes it from surrounding soil particles as edible and triggers the tweezer-like incisors to pick the grub out of the dirt for ingestion, as little as 120 milliseconds (one-twelfth of a second) has elapsed. This ability to devote so little time and energy to identifying and handling tiny prey items means the star-nosed can focus on minuscule but potentially abundant food items other moles would ignore as simply not worth the effort.

Moles may look superficially mouse-like, but they are not closely related to the rodents. (It probably doesnt help that the word mole sounds a lot like vole, which is another name for the field mouse.) There are only 42 species of moles in the world, three of which live in our areathe Eastern (Scalopus aquaticus), hairy-tailed (Parascalops breweri) and star-nosed moles.

Although all three species dig foraging tunnels just below the soil surface, it will be the Eastern mole that raises those maddening networks of ridged tunnels in your lawn. The star-nosed prefers wet areas along the borders of swamps, lakes and streams, while the hairy-tailed mole commonly frequents the soils of moderately moist forested areas

In "Mammals of the Great Lakes Region," Allen Kurta reports the Eastern mole can create its shallow tunnels at a rate of about 15 feetper hour. It first loosens the soil with sideways sweeps of its broad, heavily clawed front feet and then turns on its side to push the soil upward. Once made, it patrols the tunnels for earthworms and insects that may have burrowed through their walls.

In the colder months, all three moles typically revert to deeper tunnels, 10 to 30 inches down. But as of this writing, our winter has been so warm that the brown dog and I have been seeing a lot of new surface tunnels on our daily walks.

Back to the star-nosed mole for one last intriguing tidbit. Unlike the Eastern and hairy-tailed, the star-nosed mole commonly forages for invertebrates on the bottoms of streams and ponds. Amazingly, Catanias lab has shown the nearly blind mole hunts underwater by smell, first exhaling an air bubble over a substrate to be sniffed for possible prey and then re-inhaling the same bubble.

If youve got 3 minutes, I highly recommend the quirky but wonderfully filmed video True Facts about the Star Nosed Mole (with Ze Frank) on YouTube. You should check it out.

Really.

Ken Baker is a retired professor of biology and environmental studies. If you have a natural history topic you would like Dr. Baker to consider for an upcoming column, please email your idea to fre-newsdesk@gannett.com.

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