Year of the Mole

The Chinese calendar may say that this is the Year of the Horse, but here at the old Boggy Thicket, it is definitely the Year of the Mole.

We have always had moles, Scalopus aquaticus, but the only time I saw any evidence of them was when I pulled the drowned body of one of the little buggers out of the pool skimmer.  That didn’t happen often, but was common enough to not be considered remarkable.

This year, it is almost impossible to go anywhere on the two or so acres I consider yard without coming across a narrow strip of raised dirt that is evidence of moles tunneling  just below the surface of the lawn.  There must be hundreds of them out there digging their way to wherever the heck it is that they are going. I know that many natural phenomena are cyclical – 17 Year Locusts, etc. – but in the 38 years we’ve lived here, we have never before experienced a swarm of moles .

Ever wonder why moles choose to travel underground when it would be so much easier to move around just a couple inches higher? 

I think it is an example of Darwinian natural selection.  It may be the only way they could have survived as a species, the only way they could ever reproduce.  They are such ugly little critters that they would never be considered attractive – even by another mole – if they didn’t bump into each other in the dark.