Common mole rat. Moles, mole rats and shrews

What kind of animal is this?

The mole rat's lifestyle is similar to that of a mole: it lives exclusively underground, digs long systems of passages, and pushes excess soil to the surface, forming unsightly mounds. But in general, this is a completely different animal, different and appearance, and body structure, and behavioral characteristics, and even the nature of harmfulness...

Mole rats(Spalax) is a genus of mammals of the mole rat family of the order of Rodents, leading an underground lifestyle. There are about 4 types in it.

Mole rats are small animals, only up to 30–32 cm long, without ears, without a pronounced neck, with atrophied eyes hidden under the skin, a very small inconspicuous tail and short gray fur. Unlike moles, which feed on insects, animals feed on plant foods - they eat rhizomes, roots, tubers, and bulbs. To get to the above-ground parts of plants, they are dragged into a hole by the root. They especially love legumes, umbelliferae, and asteraceae. The stems and leaves are eaten mainly in spring and early summer.

The burrow systems of mole rats are distinguished by tiers. The first tier is food, located at a depth of 20–25 cm from the soil surface. The second, includes connecting tunnels, summer and winter nests, supply storage, is located at a depth of 3 - 4 m.

If moles loosen the soil with their front paws, mole rats use powerful incisors. And the heaps of earth in the “blind rats’ lands” are larger than those of moles. The soil thrown to the surface reaches a mass of up to 10 kg and forms mounds with a diameter of about 50 cm.

Mole rats prefer isolation. When confronted, males fight until only one remains alive. But at the same time, for each male there are 1 - 2 females, with whom they coexist during the breeding season. An area of 1 hectare can be simultaneously inhabited by 3 to 20 (and sometimes more) animals.

The most active periods in the life of animals are March, April and May. To summer and then to winter period their vital activity is significantly reduced, but they do not hibernate.

Habitat

For its habitat, it most often chooses fields, steppes, forest belts, ravines, and virgin lands.

The mole rat's underground tunnel systems have two tiers. The first is located at a depth of no more than 25 cm from the surface and is food, the second is located at a depth of 3 - 4 meters. The second has nests for living in summer and winter, as well as storage for food supplies.

The mole digs the soil using its front paws, while the naked mole rat uses its strong incisors. The piles of earth are larger than those of moles. The mounds can have a diameter of up to 50 cm, and the earth thrown to the surface sometimes has a mass of no less, but about 10 kg.

A mole rat can cause a lot of damage in a dacha, and its destruction is very difficult, since the animal spends most of its life underground.

Lifestyle

The mole rat leads an exclusively underground lifestyle, emerging to the surface on rare occasions. It creates a highly branched two-tier system of burrows. The longest is the upper “feeding” passage, which lies at a depth of about 20–25 cm. In addition to the feeding tier, the mole rat builds a system of summer and winter nests, as well as food storage areas. They are connected by passages to a second, deeper tier, which is up to 4 m long.

Making passages, the mole rat loosens the soil with the help of powerful incisors, and then moves it to the surface, where characteristic heaps of earth, the so-called “mole rats,” are formed. The weight of the ejected soil in one mole rat can exceed 10 kg, and the diameter - 50 cm. The length of the passages of one mole rat reaches 450 m.

Common mole rat eats plants; its diet is based on rhizomes, bulbs and tubers. In spring and early summer, it also feeds on above-ground parts of plants (stems and leaves). The mole rat prefers Asteraceae, Umbelliferae and Legumes.

The mole rat is also active in winter. In order not to die of hunger, he makes supplies for the winter. Acorns, rhizomes, bulbs of wild plants, potato tubers and even sugar beets were found in his underground storerooms. Moreover, the mole rat's reserves are considerable - their weight sometimes reaches 14 kg.

However, there are also living creatures that benefit from mole rats. Gophers, voles, hamsters and other animals live in abandoned mole rat tunnels.

Since the mole rat lives underground, natural enemies he has few, the main one is the steppe polecat, he can reach mole rats in their own burrows. Young animals settling on the surface are hunted by foxes, dogs, birds of prey and crows.

The lifespan of this underground rodent is up to 9 years.

What does it eat?

If there is no harvest on your plot, then you should not blame all the blame on the mole. We need to decide which crops are missing. If these are potatoes, beets and carrots, then this is definitely the work of the “teeth” of the mole rat.

In addition, the animal is not averse to eating bulbous crops, so flowers that have corms instead of roots may also suffer. The mole rat also eats the above-ground part of the plant, pulling the bush underground.

The pest's favorite greens are peas, beans, beans, and carrot tops. If the animal has enjoyed the grass, then it will prepare the root crop for future use.

It is known that an adult is capable of eating as much food per day as it weighs, therefore, when excavating its winter reserves, up to 18 kg of potatoes and other root crops were discovered in different compartments. Dry berries and nuts can be supplies for the winter.

Reproduction of blind women

Lesser mole rats are solitary animals. The network of tunnels of one individual does not connect with the burrows of another.

Individuals of different sexes are found exclusively during the breeding season. The mating season for small mole rats begins in the spring and continues until summer. But today scientists do not know how blind women find partners and create pairs.

Mole rats give birth to offspring once a year. One female can have up to 6 cubs in a litter, but, as a rule, 3-4 babies are born. A blind woman feeds her offspring for 4 weeks.

About the life expectancy of small mole rats, as well as about their mating behavior, nothing is known.

Harm

Mole rat burrows

The activity of this pest leaves behind long, several-tiered passages 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, it eats the green mass first and stores the root crops for the winter. Even one mole rat is capable of taking away a considerable share of the harvest. 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, it digs quite large tunnels, with a diameter of 5 to 15 cm, due to which it damages some plants in the area. The lower tiers can be located 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.

How to drive away a mole rat

Only one question arises when a common mole rat appears on a personal plot - how to get rid of the pest? For many, this becomes an overwhelming task. After all, the animal constantly hides in the ground and its presence, creating new mounds and destroying planted plants, only at night.

It is best to try to create conditions so that the animal leaves on its own. land plot. A lot of ways have been invented for this, but none of them guarantees that the animal will escape forever. But it’s still worth making every effort to get rid of the mole rat without shedding its blood.

One commonly used method is to flood its tunnel with water. But this may require too much water, since the animal’s underground passages are very branchy. But if the soil quickly absorbs moisture, this method is completely useless. Some try to smoke out their four-legged neighbor using smoke, pouring kerosene or fetid mixtures into the hole. Another way is to create constant noise in the area where it lives, which the common mole rat cannot tolerate. As an option, you can use an ultrasonic repeller.

Mole rats are a genus of mammals from the mole rat family of the order of rodents. Includes about 4 species, of which the most common are the common and giant mole rats. Leads an underground lifestyle.

The body length is from 23 to 30 cm, the tail is short. There are no ears, the eyes are atrophied and hidden under the skin, which is why the animal got its name. The legs are short, the hands and feet are slightly widened. The claws are large, but smaller than those of the zokor. The fur is short, thick, very soft, without lint. All sense organs are well developed, only vision is missing. Elongated tactile hairs grow near the mouth, on the cheeks, forehead, abdomen and behind the body.

Mole rats feed mainly on underground parts of plants: roots, rhizomes, bulbs and tubers. They also eat the above-ground parts of plants, which they drag into the burrow by the root.

Among the food plants that mole rats eat, Asteraceae, Umbelliferae and legumes. For the winter, the animal makes large reserves (more than 10 kg).

The distribution area of this species includes Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. Mole rats live in steppes, forest-steppes and deserts.

The population density varies over a very wide range, reaching 20 or more individuals per hectare, and in general it is quite stable and not subject to sudden changes. The optimal population density of mole rats is 3 individuals per hectare; if the number of rodents decreases to 1-2 individuals per hectare, then the risk of population degradation increases. The population size of mole rats fluctuates with significant changes in conditions environment, For example, negative impact have both droughts and high humidity soil, as well as plowing of land.

Common species of mole rat

A large rodent with a body length of adults from 20 to 32 cm, weighing about 700 g or more. The body is elongated, cylindrical, the neck is not pronounced. The paws are greatly shortened, the tail is reduced, hidden under the skin. The head is flat, wide, and the shape at the top resembles the bayonet of a shovel. The eyes are reduced, hidden under the skin. The outer ear looks like a small cushion and is also hidden under the fur. The nose is covered with a bare horny sheath of black or brown color. The front incisors are large, protrude far forward beyond the mouth and are clearly visible. The fur is pale-gray-brown in color, but in general the species is characterized by significant variability in color.

The species is distributed in the steppe and forest-steppe zone Russia and Ukraine between the Dnieper and Volga, in Moldova. The southern border of the range runs along the Caucasus Range. The mole rat lives in areas with grassy vegetation, does not go far into forests, but can live on the edges, in forest belts, in clearings and next to forest roads. In plowed areas the number of individuals is small.

A large rodent with a body length from 25 to 35 cm, weighing about 1 kg. The upperparts are light, gray-fawn or ocher-brown. In older individuals, the head is almost on top white. The belly is dark gray. Sometimes there are white spots on the stomach and forehead.

The species is endemic to the semi-deserts of the Caspian region of the north-eastern Ciscaucasia. Found near the Kuma, Terek and Sulak rivers. Mole rats, which live in a separate population beyond the lower reaches of the Ural River in Kazakhstan, are sometimes classified as a separate species, the Ural mole rat (Spalax uralensis).

Sexual dimorphism is not typical for mole rats.

Mole rats lead an underground lifestyle; they dig complex burrows up to 250 m long, at a depth of about 3.5 m. Mole rats come to the surface in very rare cases.

Mole rats chew through the ground with their strong front incisors, but do not dig. The lateral folds of the lips behind the incisors close the mouth tightly during this process. The animal pushes the chewed off earth under itself. Having accumulated a pile of soil, the mole rat turns around and pushes it to the surface with its wide shovel-shaped head. If the pile on the surface becomes very large, the mole rat seals the exit to it and digs a new one. During the day, the mole rat's residential burrows are always closed.

Rodents place food reserves in sections of regular passages, and do not build separate chambers for this. Having filled such a segment, the mole rat walls it up with soil from all sides. There are up to 10 such “storerooms” in each burrow. The area of the feeding area for an adult mole rat is 0.02-0.09 hectares, the length of feeding passages is up to 450 meters or more per individual. In addition, mole rats build a system of summer and winter nests.

Mole rats are active all year round and do not hibernate, but in winter their activity decreases. Peak daily activity occurs at night and in the second half of the day.

Adult mole rats live separately and show strong aggression towards their relatives (their fights, as a rule, end fatal). The population of mole rats differs in a certain way social structure, consists of family groups of 1 male and 1-2 females, whose burrows are connected by passages or arranged in a row. Such family groups are stable and disintegrate only after the death of one of the partners. Approximately half of the males live outside family groups and are completely excluded from the breeding process.

The average lifespan of mole rats ranges from 2.5 to 4 years; sometimes mole rats live up to 9 years. Young animals are characterized by high survival rate.

Mole rats breed once a year, in late winter or early spring. In each family group Only one female breeds at the age of 3-7 years. If there are two of them in a group, then in the spring the male leaves the area of the breeding female and creates a pair with the female, who will begin breeding next year. Babies are born at the end of February and until mid-May. There are 2-3 cubs in one litter. At the end of May, the resettlement of young mole rats begins and this process continues until autumn. Young males settle mainly underground, females - on the surface. For this reason, females in the first year of life are characterized by high mortality. The dispersal range ranges from a couple of tens to hundreds of meters.

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 mole rat can cause damage to agricultural crops in vegetable gardens and household plots. Soil emissions make it difficult to carry out field work, for example, mechanized mowing of perennial grasses for hay, and spoil field roads. At the same time, it is difficult to fight the mole rat due to its underground lifestyle. For this purpose, mechanical traps and repellent devices are used.
The giant mole rat is a protected species listed in the Red Book of Russia and the IUCN Red List.

Let's start with the fact that the mole rat and the mole are different animals, but they cause harm summer cottage almost the same.

The mole rat belongs to the category of rodents and feeds exclusively on root vegetables. For him, carrots, beets, and potatoes are delicacies.

You can find animals in your garden through earthen mounds and deep tunnels into which you can even fall. Initially, many people think that moles are to blame, but there are other pests that are very similar to moles, since they do not see anything.

Let's find out what a mole rat looks like and how it differs from a mole. And also the question that interests us: “How to get rid of mole rats in the garden and summer cottage?”

The mole rat is a rodent and a fairly large one of its relatives. Its weight often reaches about 1 kg, and its body length is 30 cm. The animal has a large and flattened head, the ears are very small, and there is no tail at all.

The hairline is very hard, as long, sticking out in different sides hairs act as organs of touch. Instead of eyes, individuals have dense skin folds resembling closed eyes, but they are not there at all.

The rodent's lips are tightly compressed, thereby protecting the mouth from soil, but two incisors, which are very massive and long, protrude out. With their help, the mole rat does all the work underground in search of food, digs holes, and gnaws root crops.

The paws are very small and poorly developed.

The mole rat practically never goes outside and spends its entire life underground.

Habitat

Mole rats live in forest-steppe and steppe zones, not far from forest plantations and cereal crops. All subspecies of the mole rat, namely Bukovinian, Podolian, sandy and Pontic, are exhibits of the Red Book of Ukraine.

Every year the number of pest animals remains the same, and they are observed only on the right side of the Dnieper River, since they cannot overcome the width of the river.

What does it eat?

The pest's favorite greens are peas, beans, beans, and carrot tops. If the animal has enjoyed the grass, then it will prepare the root crop for future use.

Differences from a mole

And the mole rat are completely different categories of animals.

They have some differences:

The mole is a predatory animal, feeds on worms and larvae, and the mole rat is a herbivore.
The mole rat is much larger in size than mole individuals.
The mole has strong and powerful paws, with which it digs underground passages, while the mole rat has short and weak legs, and digs holes with large teeth.
The mole's claws are large, while those of the rodent are practically absent.

The blind animal digs very complex burrows, which have many branches and tiers, where the cubs, kitchen and pantries are located, in which supplies for the winter are stored.

Methods to combat mole rats

Because the mole rat for a long time spends in its holes, it is very difficult to get rid of it. But still the fight against them is underway, the summer residents are using all sorts of weapons.

Poisons

Usage toxic substances, is the most in an effective way getting rid of pests. This is due to the fact that the poison can be located in the mink.

Toxic substances are like poison for rats and mice. But there is a problem, the poison is very dangerous for surrounding people and pets. The poison can also penetrate into plants, which will subsequently be unsuitable for food.

You can buy it at a veterinary store in the form. Mole poison is also suitable.

Traps

Here you need to remember that if a young or adult inexperienced individual falls into a trap at least once, then the rest will be extremely careful.

The main thing in catching a rodent is to select and install it correctly.

Find the freshest burrow on your site, clear the soil from it until a blockage of the burrow appears. You need to carefully remove it. A draft forms in the tunnel, the animal will feel it and rush to fix the problem.
The mechanical trap must be placed inside the hole, approximately 5-10 cm before the main exit. The trap chain should be placed outside.
Cover the hole with soil and cover it with some material to prevent light from entering.

Sometimes a rodent is caught after half an hour, but usually these tricks are ineffective, since the pest has a colossal sense of smell and sense of smell and tries to bypass the traps.

Repellers

You can use not only store-bought ultrasonic and vibration reflectors, but also. Among them, excellent results are achieved by tin cans, which are placed on embedded sticks. When the wind blows, they create noise, crackling, ringing, which the animal does not like.

The mole rat, although a blind animal, has excellent hearing; when it hears extraneous sounds, it tries to retreat from its habitat.

Homemade products always bring success in the fight against rodents. If you installed one, but it did not work, you can make another one, taking into account all the characteristics and habits of the animal.

For hand-held devices, turntables and windmills are suitable, rattling in the wind and frightening the beast. You can learn how to make any design from the Internet, where experienced gardeners and gardeners share their advice.

Another frequently used way to drive an uninvited guest out of his lair is water. It is necessary to fill the hole with it until the animal begins to choke and crawls to the surface.

Conclusion

It is known that mole rats do not live in families, so if you managed to drive the pest out of your area, it may not appear long time. But if it appears again, then immediately begin to catch it, otherwise you may not find a crop in the garden beds in the fall.

In conclusion, it should be mentioned that in a great way rodent control involves the use of cats and dogs, which are excellent catchers of large and small rodents.

Mole rat or blind man- champion in digging among rodents (and they are all excellent diggers). People often confuse it with, but they are completely different animals. Let's start with the fact that the mole is an insectivorous animal, and the mole rat is a rodent. The only thing they have in common is their habitat - both live underground.

The mechanics of digging their own passages also differ from the mole. The mole rat digs the ground with its incisors (front teeth) strongly protruding forward. Or rather, he fluffs up the earth with them and then pushes them to the surface. To prevent soil from getting into the mouth, nature designed the mole rat's lips in such a way that they close the mouth behind the incisors. Thanks to this, during “work” the animal’s mouth is tightly closed.

Mole rats They dig the ground without coming to the surface, and at any time of the day and at any time of the year. Its presence is revealed only by the heaps of earth on the surface that it leaves behind, the number of which depends on the density of the soil. In search of food - roots, bulbs, etc., the mole rat digs its tunnels close to the surface. The total length of such tunnels is often more than 200 meters.

But to give birth to offspring, a mole rat can burrow to a depth of 3.5 meters. Females can give birth up to three times a year depending on climatic conditions and availability of food. It must be said that mole rats live from North Africa to the Trans-Urals. IN northern regions Siberia is already dominated by zokors, relatives of the mole rat, but more about them next time.

Mole rats (Spalacidae)- a family of medium-sized rodents with a small number of species (the weight of the largest does not exceed 800-900 g). In the course of evolution, mole rats (Spalax) adapted to an exclusively underground lifestyle in steppe and semi-desert areas with fairly rich vegetation. Among the representatives life form The “root-eater” mole rat is distinguished by the fact that its eyes have completely lost the ability to see. This is the only case of loss of vision in the order of rodents and the second among all mammals (another blind person is the marsupial mole living in Australia).

Mole rats dig long (up to 900 m), branched underground passages in several tiers up to 3-4 m deep. Upper galleries, where the animals live in summer period, serve to collect food (rhizomes, bulbs, tubers). In the lower tier there is a wintering chamber and storerooms with parts of plants carefully laid out and covered with earth. When digging, rodents use powerful incisors, acting like an excavator bucket. The earth is pushed out with a shovel-shaped head. The nose of mole rats is covered with keratinized skin that protects from mechanical damage. In addition, such a nose is convenient for compacting the walls of burrows.

The incisors of mole rats, like those of all rodents, self-sharpen when gnawing, but this is not enough for rootworms: they also sharpen their teeth against each other. The structural features of the lower jaw and muscles allow mole rats to spread their lower incisors and move them back and forth by moving the blade one against the other.

One animal, who lived in captivity for a long time, achieved true skill in sharpening teeth. His home was an ordinary aquarium, the metal frame of which the mole rat learned to use. He stood on his hind legs, rested his upper incisors against the edge of the metal side, and literally gnawed it with his lower incisors. The mole rat used the glass walls of the aquarium to finely polish the sharp edge of its incisors. One can imagine the “grinding of teeth” that accompanied this procedure every time!

The special “sophistication” of sharpening and grinding the incisors of mole rats is due to the fact that it is with their incisors that they dig their extended burrows. This leads to rapid wear of the cutting surfaces and, accordingly, to the need rapid growth the incisors themselves. In captivity, the mole rat is forced to wear down its incisors on its own. If this is not done, then within a few days they will grow to such a size that the animal will not be able to close its mouth.

It is rare to see mole rats due to their secretive lifestyle. Many people mistake them for moles (even in areas where moles do not live), deceived by the appearance of the characteristic cone-shaped soil emissions, reminiscent of moles in shape.

In Russia, mole rats live in the forest-steppe and steppe from the border with Ukraine to the Volga - for example, the common mole rat (Spalax microphtalmus), and they are most numerous in the Kursk, Voronezh and Rostov regions. The largest species of this family is found in Dagestan - the giant mole rat (S. giganteus). In the second half of the 20th century, as a result of the plowing of almost all lands favorable for mole rats, the number of these rodents decreased, and in a number of areas they disappeared completely.