r/Awwducational • u/FillsYourNiche Ecologist • Aug 27 '26

Verified The star-nosed mole is the fastest eater on Earth. It hunts by slamming its nose against the soil up to 12 times a second. When it finds prey, it can identify and eat it in about 120 milliseconds, faster than the human eye can even process the motion.

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114

u/FillsYourNiche Ecologist Aug 27 '26

Neuroscientist Kenneth Catania has spent three decades studying this species and found that with each touch, 100,000 nerve fibers send information to the mole's brain, letting it build a moving picture of its underground world through touch alone since it's nearly blind.

It also has a strange party trick for its size: it can smell underwater by blowing bubbles onto objects and then re-inhaling them through its nose to pick up the scent, it is the only mammal known to do this!

References:

16

u/Ben10-fan-525 Aug 28 '26

They are a survivors of the deep-earth.

Such crafty animals.

2

u/Thelastreddditor Sep 05 '26

A hundred thousand nerve fibers just to decide lunch in a blink. Nature really did over-engineer the nose ✨

51

u/lqstuart Aug 28 '26

The star nosed mole is pretty fascinating. Ed Yong does a good overview in one of his books.

Catania’s research that OP is citing also shows that the star nosed mole’s sense of touch is analogous to human vision, and that act of feeling and eating stuff is basically the same as a human looking at/focusing on something. Those tentacle-looking things are, for all intents and purposes functionally and neurologically, the “eyes” of the star nosed mole. But still, we as humans naturally look for its eyes just to make sense of the creature, even though its eyes are totally useless vestigial organs.

Imagine a life where you burrowed through an endless tunnel and just had to look at things to eat them.

2

u/Ben10-fan-525 Aug 28 '26

Tbh a simple life is much more preferable then complicated one.Animals do have it harder but human society is much worse.

23

u/hansofoundation Aug 28 '26

I need to see a video of this

19

u/Dry-Alternative-5626 Aug 28 '26

Correction. You need a slow motion video of this

3

u/xenogazer Aug 28 '26

This is the video

3

u/It_Was_Me_Aust1n Aug 28 '26

He’s just like me FR.

1

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1

u/Ben10-fan-525 Aug 28 '26

Speed underground!

1

u/PoxedGamer Aug 31 '26

Digglets make so much more sense now...

0

u/floofermoth Aug 29 '26

He's a little horror villain is what he is. Glad he only eats bugs.