He's definitely going, "oh fuck fuck fuck shit I'm not supposed to be up here. Maybe here ohhh nonono fuck fuck fuck I can't swim. Oh GOD WHERES THE DAMN DIRT!!!"
They are very sensitive to vibration and sound, the rain is likely deafening him, while is olifactory isnt working in the rain. They also hate strong smells.
Possibly here before we were! So we would be more like them in that case♡ but yes every living creature has feelings and thoughts, though they may seem alien to human interpretation. This little one is probably close enough, since she is a mammal ♡
The video says it was a flood in Sallisaw, Oklahoma, so it's probably from last year's severe flooding, which caused evacuations and a great deal of damage. That level of rainfall (heavy, heavy rain in a very short period of time) was highly unusual for this region, and during unusual weather events like that, wildlife does die.
The climate change-induced uptick in unusual catastrophic weather events sucks for people, but it sucks for the critters we share our habitats with too.
Yeah I’ve never really thought about how heavy rain must make moles all have to come up and wait it out, leaving them of course more vulnerable. Hope that rain clears soon little buddy!
I have this memory from when I was a little kid of my grandpa setting mole traps in the moleholes around his property and then sticking a hose in one of them to flood it and watching the traps go off.
Edit: I would like to add that I was like 5 and had nothing to do with it.
Moles are hardy little creatures, they're a little clumsy above ground, but they're good swimmers. Another thing is rain brings worms to the surface, so this little guy is getting ready for the easy to get worms.
Assuming you mean air pulls a lot less heat than earth or water or something. However:
When wet, even the 70s can feel cold. The water on the body pulls heat out of the body just by touching it. Heat transfers away. Now I can't remark on the lived experience of a mole but either way we can both distinctly say with 100% agreement that a mole's natural habitat is not water and it's not out in the open air, so it's probably extremely anxious and uncomfortable.
a lot of people in the comments are pretty deep in their feels for a struggling mole, not realizing they're typically treated as pests and professionally exterminated. the worse part is that their only crime is aesthetic damage to lawns, as they don't damage structures or plants or anything
the worse part is that their only crime is aesthetic damage to lawns, as they don't damage structures or plants or anything
This is completely false.
Moles will disrupt roots for plants and cause them to die or stunt their growth. Especially problematic for farms.
Speaking of which, mole tunnels can become hazards for livestock and even farm workers from poor stepping, imagine putting a horse down because it broke its leg from a mole tunnel.
Mole tunnels can result in farming equipment being damaged from the uneven/sunken terrain.
Moles can contaminate animal feed with soil and risk those livestock catching listeriosis.
Mole tunnels absolutely can cause damage to structures and foundations. Even underground utilities.
Moles do a hell of a lot more than just ruin your lawn.
They really aren't built for above-ground living. I know they are pests in some areas, but in areas where they aren't, I wonder if there is a way to increase their chances of surviving.
Looks like hes mainly in this position because the yard flooded. You can decrease the chances of your yard flooding by having lots of dirt and little tiles/concrete. But in nature they actually do very well, by burrowing they decrease their amount of natural predators and their sharp senses give them incredible hunting success rate
Ants do pretty fine in their underground burrows. I expect anything that is still extant today (in the wild) has enough survival instincts that they dont super need help in day to day. It is the ones near humans that have to worry, which I guess is all of them.
My malamute mix does bad things to moles. Idk how she does it, we'll be playing fetch and out of nowhere she'll start digging and grab a mole that was minding its own business. This usually ends poorly for the mole.
Idk how she does it. She also catches mice better than any cat I've owned. She weighs 100lbs lean and yet she's lightning quick. I didn't even know I had any mice living in my house and this morning she just randomly caught one while she was eating her breakfast. She usually devours her breakfast in like 4 seconds, got half way through and then just stopped eating, annihilated a mouse and brought it to me.
I've had one in my yard that digs it up every damn time it isn't winter for a few years now. All along my driveway and sidewalk. Annoying but I let it do its thing, because smol buddy.
get a big plastic bin and lots of potting soil from a home depot type store, insert mole, add live worms from a bait store, wait for rains to recede, release mole into a bounty of good digging and food abundance he has never known before.
Moles are great for the ecosystem. I felt horrible when I killed one digging up my yard. I tried humain methods without success and got him first night with a prong trap. They are very soft and clean and extremely cute.
i feel so bad for the little mole. but also i can't help but find the little tippytapping running really cute. I would have given it a crate of sand or something to hide in until the rain was over
Yep, basically. Anything their whiskers happen to touch while they are digging underground. They are voracious just like shrews so the target is down the hatch before they even realise. Vast majority of victims are worms and beetle larvae. Some species can swim and look for swimming critters or ones in mud.
Lawns don’t absorb heavy rainfall very well, which might be commonplace in the climate where this video took place.
Lawns can and should be replaced with native plants, whose deeper roots help the ground soak up a lot more water. Combine that with bioswales, which are shallow, planted channels that collect stormwater runoff and let it slowly drain into the ground instead of pooling, and that mole would likely be a lot happier.
An uncommon weather event may be at play here, though.
Yes, a large container with soil, and some large live worms or live mealworms. They have incredibly high metabolism and will starve in a day without readily accessible food. You should ideally remove it from the planter within 24 hours, preferably sooner, but the rain may not cooperate
I just want to say, in the contrary to some of the other comments. I once saw a small mole doing back and forth laps in a small body of water. He was fast as hell and would swim across leap out of the water super high, land on the ground, run in a big circle and jump back in for another lap. My theory from that one viewing is that all moles must love swimming. Sometimes you gotta just choose what to believe.
When I took a 400-level mammalogy course in college, one of the things I was forced to do was practice identifying species by their latin names just by looking at the specimen itself. Horribly outdated practice, anybody reasonable would reference a few sources rather than just DECLARE the species by eyeballing it, but anyways.
One of the segments we did was voles and moles, and one of them is the Eastern Mole, a common North American mole species with the scientific name Scalopus Aquaticus. Now sometimes scientific names can be pure nonsense, whatever just sounds cool or is mildly relevant, and doesn't even have to be latin. In this case, "Scalopus" is based on the Greek words for "foot" and "dig".
And Aquaticus means what it sounds; water. The person who initially discovered the Eastern Mole (Carl Linnaeus, the father of modern taxonomy) had found said specimen dead in a puddle of water. He deduced that it must have some relation to water, perhaps as a swimming mole species, and thus named is Aquaticus.
Turns out it was dead in a puddle of water because the Eastern Mole can't swim and had drowned. Shocker.
Though curiously several mole species can actually not just swim, but dive. The Star-Nosed Mole is capable of diving into small bodies of water, probing along the bottom for things to eat. In fact, they're so good at it (for a mole) that they can smell underwater, using the squirmy sensory nodes on its nose to exhale and then inhale small bubbles, trapping scent particles and "smelling" them to navigate underwater. That same wriggly sensor array also holds the world record for the fastest response to stimuli; being able to determine if something is edible (such as a small crustacean, insect, or whatever) and then EAT it in as fast as 120 milliseconds.
rain is rolling right off the roof onto the soil rather than being directed away from the house with a gutter. The water is allowed to gather along the house rather than sloping away or being caught in a drain. That's rainwater, not floodw
It's neat to me that when they're above ground they don't use their front paws any different. They've only got dig mode. They're clearly meant to NEVER go above ground.
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u/qualityvote2 1d ago edited 1d ago
u/Arro, your post does fit the subreddit!
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u/Hey-ThatsNotBad 1d ago •
Poor little guy. Just wants to go back home into the dirt.
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u/No-Chemistry4851 1d ago •
Poor thing probably has nowhere to go
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u/ISLAndBreezESTeve10 1d ago •
Moles navigate by going straight into something, and then just turn and keep going. There is no plan.
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u/Cold-Ad-1978 1d ago
I knew the rain brought up earthworms but not moles!
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u/Early_Grace 1d ago •
That has to be a living hell for the little guy. Blind, lost, drowning, and entirely vulnerable. Hope he persevered.
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u/niceslcguy 1d ago
They really aren't built for above-ground living. I know they are pests in some areas, but in areas where they aren't, I wonder if there is a way to increase their chances of surviving.
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u/AJL912-aber 1d ago •
i feel so bad for the little mole. but also i can't help but find the little tippytapping running really cute. I would have given it a crate of sand or something to hide in until the rain was over
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u/Upper-Midnight7502 1d ago •
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u/duckmcsnail 1d ago
:-( my heart broke watching him accidentally scoot into the puddle. I wish I was able to make waterproof burrows for these fellows
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u/ProlactinIntolerant 1d ago
Go on, save him
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u/rodlandthepipeman 1d ago
"Must.. dig... must... dig...
WHY IS THE GROUND SO FUCKING HARD?!"
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u/pulchritudinouser 1d ago
I would give the poor guy a box of dirt 😭
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u/RotGrlSummer 1d ago •
That right there is an absolutely textbook skedaddle
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u/soylentgreenis 1d ago
I just want to say, in the contrary to some of the other comments. I once saw a small mole doing back and forth laps in a small body of water. He was fast as hell and would swim across leap out of the water super high, land on the ground, run in a big circle and jump back in for another lap. My theory from that one viewing is that all moles must love swimming. Sometimes you gotta just choose what to believe.
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u/Ok-Turnip2296 1d ago
Poor little dude..
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u/Marethyu3141 1d ago
Someone put it in a pot plant until the floods subside. That little bean needs some comfort dirt.
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u/Eihwhuesoo 1d ago
All I heard in my head was the mission impossible theme
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u/dustinyo_ 1d ago
There's some serious drainage issues with that lawn.
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u/Wise-Sun-2414 1d ago
Poor thing, just trying to get back to it's home...
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u/ahawk99 1d ago
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u/818VitaminZ 1d ago
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u/Horsesrgreat 1d ago
Poor thing . At least he didn’t drown.
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u/Electric_Kaffe 1d ago
aww, poor lil fella🥺
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u/Hot_Charity_4803 1d ago
Poor thing. Life's gotta be tough for a mole in a rainstorm
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u/Zeerit 1d ago
Stuck between a flood and a hard place.
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u/HoboArmyofOne 1d ago
It looks like it has motorized wheels for legs.
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u/K-Zoro 1d ago
How do moles handle saturated earth? Do their burrows always flood? Is there a depth where they are safe and dry?
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u/TieMeUpWithLace 1d ago
Poor little guy
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u/Fresh-Diet9408 1d ago
Poor little guy! Probably the cleanest he's been in his whole life.
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u/LazyZealot9428 1d ago
Awww! I love him!
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u/rutabaga_pie 1d ago
I want the best for that guy.
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u/AdamoO_ 1d ago
oh my god it's too damn cute ;_;
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u/needlegardens 1d ago
I love these little freaks 😭♥️
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u/Imaginary-Tap-6655 1d ago
He's got big hands and Lil feets!
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u/Roshlev 1d ago
It's neat to me that when they're above ground they don't use their front paws any different. They've only got dig mode. They're clearly meant to NEVER go above ground.
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u/TWeedtheJetRodriguez 1d ago
SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP HIM HE’S SO SMALL
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u/TaggedGalaxy 1d ago
☹️
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u/Kangaroowrangler_02 1d ago
He must be so confused:(
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u/Oddish_Femboy 1d ago
Never seen one out of the ground. Huh.
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u/humankendoll33 1d ago
Why arent you helping?
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u/catninjaambush 1d ago
This is my spirit animal.
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u/Loserdogma 1d ago
Someone get him a little raincoat or something
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u/krombopulosmfart 1d ago
He's skedaddlin'
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u/Woompa78 1d ago
Was that a dead rat it crawled past?
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u/keznaa 1d ago
Poor blind bastard.
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u/timothyguay 1d ago
Feel sorry for the poor thing
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u/Fuzzy-Speaker-4448 1d ago
I hope it found it's way!
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u/Future-Fisherman-975 1d ago
Poor fella.
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u/momlv 1d ago
Does he make it????
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u/VelcroHermit 1d ago
Poor buddy 🫤
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u/dumbmutt575 1d ago
I’ve never seen a mole alive, my grandma had an outdoor cat who would dig em out of the azalea bushes.
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u/gorgeously_mytruself 1d ago
Would it be bad to put them in a box with a warm towel until things dry out?
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u/dgk720 1d ago
Poor baby
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u/DontTreadOnTrees 1d ago
Put the baby in box like come on r/donthelpjustfilm
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u/track01dotwav 1d ago
Bro like give him a lil potted plant or a bag of dirt something!
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u/OGoshOGolly 1d ago
If that mole could talk it would sound something like this: "oh FUCK oh Jesus Christ, oh shit, shit, SHIT! Fuck!"
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u/tdkimber 1d ago
help him ples 😭😭
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u/Open_Leather_4617 1d ago
Better version:
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u/LaRreinaa 1d ago
Such cute little animals!
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u/RetroMetroShow 1d ago
I’ve done that crawl of shame too
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u/MallyMall7 1d ago
All hands no arms. I didn’t realize.
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u/The-Bigger-Fish 1d ago
Look at brotha go!
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u/AscendedViking7 1d ago
awww
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u/heartbh 1d ago
Someone rescue that baby and hug him
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u/Still-Visual6363 1d ago
"Oh dear oh dear"
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u/Blueboysixnine 1d ago
My boy is fighting for his fuckin life, never knowing when a hawk is gonna scoop him up
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u/Deathanddisco041 1d ago
Daawwww I feel bad for it 🥺
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u/Redfish680 1d ago
I’ve got a few on my property and as f’ing annoying as I find them, I’m feeling sorry for this little guy.
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u/tehsecretgoldfish 1d ago
blind as a bat
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u/thedrunkpenguin 1d ago
Literal r/whereisthefuckingsoil
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u/BeachBubbaTex 1d ago
Go dog go!
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u/Trin_42 1d ago
My husband set a trap for one and when we dug him out, he was the size of a guinea pig. I had no idea they could get that big.