The Peculiar Star-Nosed Mole Has Tentacles on Its Face

It won’t surprise you that we at Laughing Squid like animals with tentacles. Usually that means cephalopods, of course. But the peculiar case of the Star-nosed Mole deserves a mention for its exceptional tentactular protuberances.

The mole’s most distinctive feature is a circle of 22 mobile, pink, fleshy tentacles at the end of the snout, from which they derive their name. These are used to identify food by touch, such as worms, insects and crustaceans.

This 2008 video by Animal Planet gives an extreme closeup of the mole’s eponymous feature. The handy schnoz is more useful than you might think. Its 11-fingered nose-hands provide the mole incredible detail of what’s right… under its nose.

The Star-nosed mole closeup

mikl-em
Mikl-em

Actor, nerd, poet, producer, writer mikl-em made his name short so you wouldn't have to. In addition to his blog you can find his writing in "Hi Fructose" magazine and witness him almost life-sized in various plays at The Dark Room Theater in SF's Mission district.

He tends to write about theater, humor, San Francisco culture and history, and stuff that's just plain weird. He thanks Scott for sharing the keys to the Laughing Squid virtual HQ and promises to uphold whatever it is that the mirthful cephalopod would prefer to be uplifted.