You Need Hairy Tailed Mole Facts In Your Life
If you live in the Northeastern United States or parts of Southeastern Canada, there is a good chance you have the Hairy-Tailed Mole digging in your yard! This is my third article in my moles of North America series, I hope you enjoy learning about these fascinating mammals.
Hairy-Tailed Mole Scientific Name and other Taxonomic Fun!
The Hairy tailed mole's scientific name is Parascalops breweri. The first part of the name is the genus to which this mole species belongs and it is the only member of this genus. I'm not entirely sure what the intended context is, but Parascalops seems to mean "alongside moles".
There are other genera of moles in North America, and the Eastern Mole belongs to the genus Scalopus meaning simply "mole", so I would venture a guess it is a reference to being a genus that is similar to, but not the same, as the one the Eastern Mole belongs to.
The species name for the Hairy-tailed mole refers to Thomas Mayo Brewer, and American ornithologist and naturalist that was a friend of John James Audubon (who painted the illustration plate featuring the Hairy-tailed mole but under the name Brewer's Shrew Mole).
Like all moles, the Hairy-tailed mole is in the family Talpidae (meaning, of course, moles). Together with genii Scalopus, Scapanus, Scapanulus (the odd one out that lives in China, not North America), genus Parascalops all represent a New World clade of moles known as the Scalopini. These represent one monophyletic (originating from one single ancestral mole) group. Scalopini and the tribe of the Star-nosed Mole, Condylura, together make up a subfamily of Talpidae known as Scalopinae. All members of this subfamily of Talpids are "true" moles and with the exception of one Chinese species, live in North America.
Hairy-Tailed Mole Range
You can check out my state-by-state quick guide for every mole species in every American state here.
Hairy-tailed moles are found from southern Quebec and Ontario to central Ohio, and south as far as western North Carolina in the Appalachian Mountains (Walker, 1964). In 1995 a hairy-tailed mole was observed near the north end of Agawa Bay in Lake Superior Provincial Park. This is approximately 45km north of the previous peripheral record of Pancake Bay, Ontario (Hecnar, 1996).
Hairy-Tailed Mole Lifespan
Most sites indicate their life span is about likely to be 3 to 4 years, the same as other related mole species. Ages of moles are often determined in the wild by tooth wear.
Hairy-Tailed Mole Physical Description and Species Characteristics
The Hairy-tailed mole is a medium sized mole of roughly 5 inches or 12.7 centimeters. It is not the smallest mole in North America, but it is smaller than the Eastern mole and Star-nosed mole of the Eastern United States and Canada, with which ranges they can overlap.
In addition to it's Eastern range, separating it from any Western species, and smaller size, this mole has a slightly smaller snout than other Scalopini moles.
Like most American moles, it is mostly gray to black with a fleshy pink snout and spade feet. The eyes are covered with fur.
The most diagnostic marker of the Hairy-tailed mole is it's hairy, fully furred tail. Other moles in the Eastern US have a naked tail, sometimes with sparse hair, but not as densely furred as the Hairy-tailed mole.
Hairy tailed mole feeding behavior
This mole species is fossorial (meaning "digging") and mostly dwells underground, digging exploratory feeding tunnels in search of grubs, slugs, worms, and other invertebrates. They tend to come up above ground more often than Eastern moles.
Like all moles, their feeding tunnels produce the dirt ridges that you see crisscrossing your lawn. They do not eat roots or tubers, unlike rodents, and are not a direct threat to plants. As with most moles, the main concern is aesthetic, or sometimes a concern that their digging can expose plant roots causing them to dry out.
In addition, rodents that do eat plants, such as voles, may utilize mole tunnels as an easy pathway to find food and travel safely.
If you find that Hairy-tailed moles are a threat to your lawn, you can check out my shop for mole deterrent solutions. Vekibee sonic mole repellers are your best bet for getting rid of moles in your yard or on your lawn.
Hairy-Tailed Mole Habitat Preferences
They prefer moist and well-drained soil for foraging according to Hecnar. They can live in meadows, roadsides, the edges of both deciduous and coniferous forests, and of course, your garden!
Hairy-Tailed Mole Reproduction and Social Behavior
These moles mate between late March to April. The female Hairy-tailed mole produces a single yearly litter of 4 to 5 offspring in a nesting burrow located deep in the ground . These nests are at lower than about a foot in the soil, but they can be deeper, far deeper than the surface, foraging tunnels. These Hairy-tailed mole babies will be weaned and able to leave the nest in about 30 days or 4 weeks.
Not a great deal is known about their social behavior, but interestingly the ranges of males, females and juveniles can overlap in the summer. This overlap in spring of course, helps males seek out females to mate, but it is interesting they maintain these overlapping ranges. According to this interesting site, they make several squeaking, or guttural vocalizations and likely use them to communicate, though what these sounds mean can be a mystery.
I myself have heard Eastern moles vocalize when caught by cats or humans--it is typically a squeak, I assume out of fear. In addition, there are youtube videos of Eastern moles fighting, and it typically involves squeals, though these sounds can largely be involuntary and not necessarily a matter of simple communication.
However, when the breeding season has concluded, and the young moles have dispersed from the nest--at time in which they may find and take up a new home in your garden--these Hairy-tailed moles will become their usual fiercely solitary and aggressive selves.
This is also another one of the mole species that are intersex--meaning that the functionally female of the species possesses ovotestes. When looking at Hairy-tailed moles externally, the genitals that you see are the prepuce, which can house an internal penis for the male, or internal clitoral structure in the female. Adriane Watkins Sinclair et al. has a wonderful paper on the comparative morphology of 4 species of mole genitals, including the Hairy-tailed mole.
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed reading about the fascinating Hairy-tailed mole. If you have some in your backyard or garden that you are trying to get rid of humanely feel free to check out my posts on Plants That Repel Moles and and my review of the Vekibee Sonic Mole Repeller.
Don't forget my guide on how to Get The Best Out of Sonic Mole Repellers, too.
Stay tuned in the future for more information and facts about moles!
