The blind mole that sees with 22 fingers on its face
This mole sees with 22 pink fingers growing out of its face — and eats faster than your brain can react.
The short version
The star-nosed mole is nearly blind but feels the world with a 22-tentacle star covered in over 25,000 sensors, the most sensitive touch organ known in any mammal. It can find, identify, and eat prey in about 8 milliseconds, making it the fastest-eating mammal on Earth.
Why it's so weird
- ✓The Star-Nosed Mole can find, identify, and swallow prey in about 8 milliseconds, making it the fastest-eating mammal on Earth.
- ✓The Star-Nosed Mole feels the world with 22 pink fingers growing straight out of its face instead of seeing.
- ✓The Star-Nosed Mole has over 25,000 tiny touch sensors on its star, the most sensitive patch of skin known in any mammal.
- ✓The Star-Nosed Mole taps its star against the ground up to a dozen times a second to build a map of everything around it by touch.
- ✓The Star-Nosed Mole is almost completely blind but does not need eyes to hunt.
The full story
This mole does not really see at all. Instead it feels the world with twenty-two pink fingers growing straight out of its face. Meet the star-nosed mole, one of the strangest hunters on the entire planet. That weird star is not a hand and it is not for digging. It is a touch organ covered in over twenty-five thousand tiny sensors, making it the most sensitive patch of skin known in any mammal. The mole is almost completely blind, but it does not need eyes. It taps that star against the ground up to a dozen times a second, building a map of everything around it by touch alone. And it is fast. It can find a bug, identify it, and swallow it in about eight milliseconds, quicker than your brain can even react. It is officially the fastest eating mammal on Earth. Follow for more weird animal facts.
Watch the 45-second version
Star-Nosed Mole gallery
