Moles
In Redwall
- Alignment: Good
- Nicknames: Blinkeye, digger
- Appearance: Moles in Redwall tend to have very long claws, like
moles in our world, but somehow they can write with those claws as
well. They're bipedal, like all creatures in the Redwall world, but
look like moles in our world in all other respects.
- Diet: Moles like earthy foods, though their favorite is
turnip'n'tater'n'beetroot pie, also called deeper'n'ever pie.
Otherwise they eat just about anything any other goodbeast eats.
- Habitat: Moles often live underground. There is a network of
tunnels beneath Mossflower called Moledeep, where many moles reside (or used
to reside). Some do live in Redwall, however.
- Typical Personality: Moles are rustics and homebodies to the
core. They are terrified of heights and water for the most part, and
are hard workers, with plenty of common sense, if not much schooling.
Moles are rarely warriors.
- Habits: Moles love to dig, that's for sure. Their speech is
quite difficult to understand- you can count yourself a Redwall expert if
you can read, write, and speak the rustic molespeech accurately.
Outside Redwall
- Classification: Talpa europaea
- Other Names: European mole
- Appearance: Moles are usually 12 - 14 cm in length and weigh 60 -
120 grams. Like with most mammal species, the female is slightly
smaller and lighter than the male. They have small eyes that don't
work too well and indistinct ears. It is the nose, ears, and sense of
touch that the mole relies heaviest on. Most distinctive about moles
are their digging claws.
- Life Span: 3 - 6 years (three being the usual lifetime)
- Diet: Moles are voracious carnivores. One mole consumes about
its own bodyweight of food per day, mainly composed of earthworms
- Habitat: The mole prefers hardwood forests for their galleries,
though meadows with light soil are good too. Generations of moles may
use the same galleries over and over- extensive underground chambers and
tunnels dug by generations. Molehills, distinctive piles of earth, are
created only when a hole is fresh-dug, such as a hunting hole which is only
used temporarily. The entire network of galleries can be 100 to 200
meters (yards, roughly), starting 15 cm under the soil but going as far down
as 50 cm. Moles are mostly solitary.
- Habits: Underground through excavated galleries, moles can move very
fast - as much as one meter a second. Burrowing capacity is 20 m a
day.
- Life Cycle: The female produces a litter each spring of about 3 or
4 young. Fur starts to grow at 14 days, eyes open at 22 days and they are
weaned at 4-5 weeks. The offspring leave the galleries at 33 days.
- Sites for Further Research: