George Lewis, age 10, of Columbus, Ohio, for his question:
HOW LARGE IS A MOLE?
A mole is a thick bodied mammal that lives underground. The common mole of North America is a fast, tireless digger that lives in the Midwestern, Eastern and Southwestern regions of the United States. It is five to eight inches long, including a tail that is about one inch long. It weighs from one and a half to five ounces and eats nearly its own weight in food every day.
The common mole lives in nests about one foot underground. It lives almost its entire life underground and tunnels near the surface when searching for food. Many nests are lined with leaves.
The star nosed mole has a fringe of fleshy feelers around its nose. It is about the same size as the common mole. It lives in southeastern Canada and in the eastern United States as far south as Georgia.
The star nosed mole likes to live near water and usually builds its home in the damp, muddy soil of a swamp or along the shore of a pond.
The European mole builds a home _with many underground chambers. Passageways extend from a central chamber in all directions. One passage, called the bolt run, serves as an exit in case of danger. The others lead to feeding grounds.
The European mole is about the same size as the common mole of North America.
Moles also live in parts of Asia. The largest species of all moles is the Russian desman, which is about 14 inches long, including the tail. It lives in southeastern~Europe and central western Asia.
The smallest species are the shrew moles and long tailed moles of Asia and the Pacific Coast of North America. they are about five inches long, including their tails.
Moles eat mainly worms and insects and seldom eat plants. Their diggings, however, often spoil gardens and fields, and farmers set traps in the animals' tunnels.
The mole has a narrow, pointed nose, a wedge shaped head and large forelegs. Its front paws, which turn outward, have long, broad nails.
The mole's forelegs work like shovels, scooping out the earth. The animal's hind legs are short and powerful. It has sharp claws.
Although it is almost blind, the mole does have tiny eyes that are shaded by overhanging fur or skin. A mole does not have external ears, but it hears well.
In one of the underground chambers, a female mole will have three or four babies born to her in the spring.
Mole fur has lost popularity through the years, but at one time it was used in making coats and jackets. Furriers preferred bluish gray mole fur, but they also used black, brownish black and paler shades. Moleskin is lightweight, warm, soft and thick.
A mole is also a unit used in chemistry to measure amounts of chemicals that take part in chemical reactions. One mole of any substance contains 602,257 billion trillion atoms, molecules or radicals. Here's how that very large number is printed out completely; 602,257,000,000,000,000,0 00,000.