I’ve found myself thinking a lot about moles, recently.  It started with the two week deep freeze in January.  Trix discovered that the molehills were too frozen to stamp on.  It got me thinking: what do moles do when the ground is frozen solid?  Do they mind being stuck below the surface?  Do they need to come up for air?  Is that first breath of fresh air after days stuck underground the most delicious treat for a mole’s lungs?  

Once I’d started thinking about moles I couldn’t stop.  It suddenly became totally fascinating to me that everywhere I was walking, moles were below me.  Loads of them! And tunnels everywhere! Moles aren’t endangered, they are doing just fine down there.  But what ARE they doing down there?  And why do they make molehills?  And does it annoy them when my children flatten their lovely piles of gorgeous earth?  And why on earth do some humans hate moles so much that they hire someone to trap and kill them?  I realised that I know basically nothing about moles and I really should remedy that.  So, here comes the Hannah Longmuir one-page guide to being a mole:

• moles love tunnels. They have velvety fur which helps them move easily through the earth.  Their surprisingly pink and surprisingly clean hands are angled to be efficient mud-movers.  Their mouth and nose are angled down-the-way to protect them from getting mud stuck up their noses.
• a mole can dig up to 20m of tunnel in one day.  They use a sort of breast-stroke action.  Molehills are a mole’s way of getting rid of loose soil.  It might be slightly annoying if a little foot stamps on the hill and squishes some soil back down into the tunnel, but not dangerous for the mole, so I think the delight of molehill jumping is worth an occasional grumpy mole.
• moles have permanent tunnels that can be used for generations. They have travel tunnels, and tunnels for sleep chambers and worm-stores.
• moles REALLY LOVE worms. They build little rooms to keep worms in – up to 100 at a time. The worms are paralysed by a toxin so that they can be stored.  A mole never wants to be caught without a worm-snack.
• As for how moles feel about the cold, it is lovely & warm deep down below the frost. Moles have adapted to the lack of oxygen.  They have twice as much haemoglobin compared to other animals (haemoglobin carries oxygen in the blood). Amazingly, moles can shrink themselves during cold weather by up to 11%.  This is called Dehnel’s Phenomenon.  It is believed that they therefore save energy. 
• Moles aren’t terribly sociable.  Three to five moles per acre would be on the busy side.  
• I’ve discovered that drawing a mole is really quite tricky.  It is tempting to give them bigger, brighter eyes to make the drawing more lively, but actually, moles have super tiny eyes because who needs eyes when you live in the dark. 

• moles improve soil health leading to plant and insect diversity
• they eat grubs that can attack crops
• tunnels improve soil drainage, which helps with flooding