English: Townsend's Mole (Scapanus townsendii) range (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Townsend’s Mole
Scapanus townsendii
The Townsend Mole can be identified by looking at its fur coat. The color would either be black or brown. They also have a short tail, with no tuft or hair. The average length of this species is around 6.0 to 6.2 inches, with a 1.75 to 1.85 length of tail. It is considered to be the biggest of other North American Moles and can weigh 4.0 to 4.2 oz. This mole have blue small eyes, usually hidden by their fur on the head. Like other mole species, they can't see much, but have good sense of smell wit their narrow snout.
They have wide feet, but scooping claws to help them in digging. The Townsend species are often confused with the Coast Moles because of overlapping characteristics. The main food source of these moles are pupae, worms, spiders, slugs, centipedes, larvae and other soil invertebrates. The Townsend moles build shallow tunnels to catch the soil insects, but would leave the tunnels if it gets flooded. The species is named from John Kirk Townsend, the first person to discover and record the mole species.
