Features and habitat of a mole rat
Common mole rat Is a mammal that belongs to the order of rodents. In the course of evolutionary development, all organs of this animal have adapted to the underground way of life.
The eyes have completely atrophied and have lost the ability to see. This is almost the only case in the delight of rodents, when there was a complete loss of vision. The lifestyle of these mammals is exclusively underground. Blind ratslike moles, they dig long labyrinths of passages, and they push the excess soil that hinders them to the surface.
There are 4 species in the mole rat family. Each of them has its own habitat. Animal mole rat chooses steppes, deserts, forest-steppe and forest outskirts for his residence. The soil suitable for their habitat should be of moderate density. Clay and sandy soil is not suitable for them. Their habitat includes forest-steppe and steppe of Moldova, Ukraine and Russia.
The blind man digs the ground with his teeth
These are mainly pastures or unplowed lands, rich in herbaceous vegetation. Mole mole rat itself is small in size. Its length is 30-32 cm. Weigh from 700 gr. up to 1 kg. He leads a rather solitary lifestyle, so few people saw him live. To correct this oversight and have an idea of the appearance of this animal, we bring to your attention a few photo of mole rats.
As you can see in the image, it has no ears, its eyes are hidden under the folds of its skin, and its small tail is almost invisible. The limbs of this underground inhabitant are short, and the head resembles a bayonet shovel. By the way, digs its tunnels mole mole rat exclusively with teeth, not paws.
This happens in the following way, the front incisors of the mammal bite into the soil, and then, with the help of a shovel-shaped head, the crushed lumps of earth are pushed out. The special structure of the jaw and muscles allows the lower incisors to move apart and move them forward and backward.
This work leads to significant tooth wear in mole rat... But do not worry, the incisors grow very quickly, so this underground resident will not be left without a "tool" for digging his tunnels. By the way, thanks to his work, he not only grinds the incisors, but also sharpens them when gnawing into the soil. Animals in captivity deserve more sympathy.
They do not have the opportunity to grind their teeth and sometimes they cannot close their mouths due to the fact that the incisors have grown to an enormous size. The fur of these giants of their craft is very soft, dark in color. The nose is covered with a keratinized layer of skin. It is this layer that is protective. It protects against various mechanical damage during the ramming of the burrow walls.
Fighting a mole rat with water
Sometimes it helps to get rid of moles by periodically flooding their holes. However, this method requires a lot of water. Often, in order to fill all the moves of the animal, at least 100 liters are required. A small amount of water will not give the desired effect.
Fresh articles about garden and vegetable garden
Shelter for blackberries for the winter. Video
Shelter of grapes in the fall video for beginners
Peach shelter for the winter
The nature and lifestyle of a mole rat
If moles loosen the soil with their front paws, then sand mole rats wielding powerful incisors. After their activity, heaps of earth remain larger than those of moles, and reach about 0.5 m.
In the photo, a sand mole rat
The weight of one such pile can reach 10 kg. From 3 to 20 representatives of this species live on 1 hectare of land. The most active period of life of these rodents falls in the spring months. In summer and winter, they become less active, but do not hibernate. Labyrinths of giant mole rats special in their structure.
Their distinctive feature is the tiered tunnel system. So, the top floor of "such a building" is considered food, it is located at a depth of 25 cm. On this tier, rodents collect food: tubers, rhizomes of plants. The second floor houses tunnels, summer and winter nests and storerooms. It is located deeper - 3-4 m.
In winter, the entrance to these underground galleries is clogged with earth, and the animal lives here until warm times. The total area of such labyrinths is 450 m. The number of grocery storerooms in such a territory can reach 10 pieces, and winter stocks can be 10 kg. Here is such a thrifty animal.
The lifestyle of giant mole rats is lonely. They carefully guard the borders of their territory. At times, the collision of two males ends in skirmishes over territory with a fatal outcome. Their activities cause great harm to agriculture.
Signs of a mole rat in the garden - these are slides of the earth. They not only spoil the aesthetic appearance of the site, but also ruin the harvest. Corn, legumes, carrots, beets and potatoes suffer the most from these underground animals. In just a day, 1 individual is capable of damaging 4-6 root bushes. Deaf settled down on your site, how to deal with it?
You can get rid of such a pest by re-digging the soil. So I destroy the feed tiers of their passages. It happens that they are frightened off by an unpleasant smell, so you can use special purchased repellents. One of the options for the fight is manual capture of a mole rat. For this, a fresh entrance to the hole is determined and another entrance is sought. Then a segment between them is dug out.
In the photo is a giant mole rat
This animal does not tolerate drafts, so it will try to eliminate the destruction. It is at this moment that it will be possible to catch this pest. Drive out mole rat you can also use water. They find a mound of earth mixed with clay and pour water into a burrow nearby.
Fighting a mole rat in the country
The owners, faced with a mole rat, complain that the animal is burrowing deeply, it is very difficult to get it. Often underground "warehouses" are located at a depth of 1.5 meters. Attempts to get to the storage lead to unnecessary digging of the beds, damage to the crop. How to get a mole rat out of the garden? Many gardeners are looking for an answer. The price of the issue is the preservation of a rich harvest. Experienced gardeners offer several effective methods to get rid of the neighborhood with a dangerous rodent. It is important to act quickly, not to feel sorry for the animal. Excessive humanity often fails the owners, mole rats reproduce actively, a colony of five to eight individuals is capable of leaving the owners without a crop.
Reproduction and life expectancy
The blind rats live singly, but during the breeding season they form family groups. This family includes 1 male and 1-2 females. As a rule, members of such families live in the neighborhood. The male is digging a tunnel to his chosen one. He moves to the sounds that the female makes.
If there are 2 females in the group, then they reproduce in turn. One year is the first, the second is another. Such unions break up only in case of death. 2-3 babies are born a year. This significant event falls in the period from February to May.
The resettlement of the younger generation is taking place in a peculiar way. So the "girls" are moved to the upper tiers a year after their appearance, and the "boys" - for the second year, to the lower floors. They become sexually mature at 2-3 years of age. Life expectancy of mole rats is 2.5 - 9 years.
What is different from a mole
The blind man only looks like a mole. Their difference lies in the fact that the mole is a predator, therefore insects, their larvae, and worms are included in its diet. The mole rat is a herbivore, its diet includes only plant foods. It feeds mainly on root crops.
If a massive loss of potatoes, carrots, beets or bulbous plants has begun in the garden, there is no need to doubt. This is the handiwork of a mole rat. He literally pulls root crops deep into the ground. Also, it can eat umbrella and leguminous plants.
Every day, the mole rat absorbs such an amount of food that can be compared by weight with its body weight. In one burrow for supplies, you can find about 18 kg of potatoes and other delicacies. Therefore, one can easily imagine the losses from his living in the garden.
In addition, the mole is not able to dig huge tunnels with its paws. The blind rat builds them with huge incisors. Therefore, the harm from the mole will be much less.
Appearance
The body is 20-50 cm long. The body is oblong oval. A giant mole rat of gray-brown color. The coat is short and thick. The upper body is usually lighter in color than the lower body. In older individuals, the fur often becomes white. Eyes are missing. To be more precise, there are eyeballs, but they are hidden under the skin and are practically undeveloped. The nose is large and bare. The mustache is short. The teeth are represented by only two pairs of incisors (front teeth). Legs are short with small claws. The outer ears are absent, only two holes on the sides of the head are visible. The tail is missing. Long hairs grow on the forehead, cheeks, belly, near the mouth and on the back of the body, which perform the function of touch. (Fig. 1 Blind Boy photo)
Harm
Mole rat holes
From the activity of this pest, long tunnels of several tiers remain in the garden, as well as underground storerooms, in which the animal stores part of the crop grown by the owners in their gardens. As a rule, he eats the green mass first of all, and puts the root crops for the winter. Even one mole rat is able to take away a considerable share of the crop. If several individuals appear on the site, then you can forget about high yields of crops such as potatoes, onions, beets and carrots.
In addition, he digs rather large passages, with a diameter of 5 to 15 cm, due to which he damages some plants on the site. The lower tiers can be at a depth of up to 3 meters, and the upper ones - at a depth of 10 cm. Such a system of underground passages often does not allow the normal development of many cultivated plants.
Description of the animal
Blind rats
appear to be eyeless and deaf as a mole, since the functioning remnants of these body parts are furred and therefore not visible. The tiny eyes are hidden under the skin, while the outer ears are reduced to small folds. Sensory bristles extending posteriorly from the flattened, soft nose to the eyes give the head a knee-like wedge shape. Like the eyes and ears, part of the tail remainder is not visible from the outside.
Medium-sized mole rats, 100 to 570 grams (3.5 oz to 1.3 lb), with lengths from 13 to 35 cm (5.1 to 13.8 in). The dense, soft fur can be pale to reddish brown or gray on the tops; The underparts are grayish or brown. The front of the head is usually paler than the back and may have white or yellow stripes that may run down the sides of the head or run down the middle from the nose to the forehead.
A territorially isolated and lonely common mole rat, digs a network of holes, digging with its incisors, pushing the weakened soil under the belly from the front, and then striking behind itself with its hind legs. When enough soil has accumulated, he, like a mole, turns to pack on the tunnel wall with his stiff snout and uses his head to bulldoze excess debris through the tunnel and to the surface. The resulting mounds indicate tunnels 10-25 cm below the ground in which the rodent searches for food.
Like the mole, the diet consists mainly of roots, tubers and bulbs, but sometimes the animal appears at night to feed on seeds and green parts of the plant. In the tunnels, vertical passages connect shallow burrows into deeper corridors where separate chambers are built for nesting, storing food and excrement.
During wet autumn and winter, females build large mounds containing chambers where mating takes place, and the young are raised. Like a mole, a mole rat takes about a month to become pregnant, and litter sizes range from one to five.
The common mole rat is an eccentric creature that is neither a mole nor a rat.
... The blind rat is a rodent that is closely related to porcupines and guinea pigs. This unusual animal lives in East Africa. It can be found in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia. The mole rat lives in arid regions and deserts. The mole rat lives in southeastern Europe, Turkey, the Middle East and eastern North Africa off the Mediterranean coast. Some species also stretch eastward to the Caspian Sea.
Habitat
suffer from humans (for now), and their populations, previously considered large and stable, are declining in the wild. So far, mole rats are not on the list of endangered animals. These rodents prefer sandy or loamy soils of steppes, slopes, forests, meadows, pastures, gardens and cultivated fields in areas that receive at least 10 cm of annual rainfall.
The evolutionary history of mole rats in the Mediterranean is represented by fossils ranging from 17 to 19 million years to the Early Miocene (23.8 million to 16.4 million years ago).
The tiny animal works actively all year round. He lives mostly underground or deep in the cave he digs. In addition to using incisors to gnaw food, roots and tubers, teeth are constantly growing and need to be sanded to be sharp and highly functional.
Natural enemies
- Mole rats are solitary animals. Adult mole rats live only in separate burrows. They are very careful and rarely fall into human traps.
- The baby mole rat can harm crops in vegetable gardens and backyard plots. Emissions of land impede field work, such as mechanized mowing of perennial grasses for hay, and spoil field roads. At the same time, it is difficult to fight a mole rat because of its underground lifestyle. For this purpose, mechanical traps and deterrent devices are used.
- The giant mole rat is a protected species listed in the Red Book of Russia and the IUCN Red List.
To date, the most famous digging rodent is the mole. And such a representative of the fauna as a giant mole rat remains little known, although it is not inferior in size to a mole. His brothers (mole rat, common mole rat and sand mole rat) are more common and there is more information about them. The sand mole rat is most similar to the giant mole rat, in appearance and biology. This animal is also a very interesting species and has its own characteristics that distinguish them from other representatives of earth-moving rodents.
Sand mole rat
Small rat
Common rat
Harm
Long multi-tiered underground passages and "storerooms" filled with crops taken from the owners - this is the result of the activity of a large rodent. The mole rat actively eats young plants, stores root crops for the winter. One adult individual is able to take a considerable part of the grown vegetables from the owners. If a family of animals with large incisors settled on the site, you can forget about the high yield of potatoes, beets or carrots.
Another unpleasant moment - the diameter of the underground passages is from 5 to 12-15 cm. The rodent is rather large, it digs actively, the damage to the underground part of the plants is clearly visible.The animal equips recesses and manholes for movement, starting from a depth of 10 cm. The lower tiers stretch 1–3 meters in depth. The ramified system of underground "communications" and exits to the surface interfere with the normal development of plants.
Pest animal
The branched underground labyrinths are great for mole rats, but can be a cause for concern for humans. If the vegetable garden or personal plot becomes the habitat of this rodent, you can say goodbye to the lion's share of the crop. Most likely, the animal will like carrots, potatoes and onions. It also tastes like onion flowers, legumes, corn and saplings.
Endless heaps of dug earth, subsidence of the ground, the sudden disappearance of planted crops and even small trees - this is what people observe when an ordinary mole rat settles on their land plot. The description of his sabotage can be continued for a long time, and stopping them is an impossible task for many.
