Moles, often unseen, spark curiosity about their underground lives and communication. While not known for loud vocalizations, they produce subtle sounds that play a role in their subterranean world.
The Subtle Sounds of Moles
Moles produce quiet vocalizations like chirps, squeaks, snorts, grunts, wheezing, barks, or high-pitched squeals. These sounds are typically low in volume and difficult for humans to hear without specialized equipment or very close proximity. While moles can hear a wide range of frequencies, their own vocalizations are subtle, reflecting their solitary and underground existence.
Reasons Behind Mole Vocalizations
The limited vocalizations moles produce serve specific purposes within their dark tunnels. Grunts might be used by a mother mole to communicate with her pups, signaling safety or presence. Male moles may bark at other males as a territorial warning to keep them away from their established tunnel systems. Squeals are sometimes emitted as distress calls, such as when a mole feels threatened or is stepped on.
Beyond Sound: How Moles Truly Communicate
Moles primarily rely on senses other than sound for navigation and communication in their dark, underground habitat. Their highly developed sense of touch is facilitated by sensitive hairs called vibrissae located on their snouts and bodies. A unique feature on their nose is Eimer’s organs, which are densely packed with nerve endings, allowing for rapid sensory discrimination of objects, surface features, and textures. This tactile sensitivity helps them navigate tunnels and locate food in complete darkness.
Their acute sense of smell is also crucial for hunting, orientation, and avoiding danger. Moles possess the ability to “smell in stereo,” meaning they can use subtle differences in scent cues entering each nostril to pinpoint the direction of food or other moles. Additionally, moles utilize scent glands to secrete pheromones, chemical signals that convey information about their emotional state, readiness to mate, and territorial boundaries. This chemical communication helps them manage interactions and avoid conflicts.
Moles are highly sensitive to vibrations in the soil, which they detect to understand their surroundings. This vibrational sense allows them to perceive the movements of potential prey, such as earthworms and insects, and detect approaching predators. Their ability to sense these subtle ground tremors is an adaptation for life beneath the surface, compensating for their minimal eyesight, which only allows them to distinguish between light and dark.
Identifying Underground Noises
When noises are heard underground, it is often difficult to determine if they originate from moles. Signs of mole activity are typically visual, such as volcano-shaped molehills or raised surface runways that appear as ridges in the lawn. These mounds indicate areas where moles have pushed displaced soil to the surface while excavating their complex tunnel systems.
Many underground noises or disturbances are caused by other burrowing animals, such as voles, gophers, or shrews, which can sometimes use abandoned mole tunnels. Unlike moles, some of these animals create visible entry and exit holes to their tunnels. Sounds might also originate from non-animal sources, like settling foundations or underground pipes. Observing the specific type of ground disturbance, such as the characteristic molehills and raised tunnels without open holes, provides a more reliable indication of mole presence than trying to hear their subtle sounds.