dead moles? (1 Viewer)

[matt green]

while walking around footpaths near my home I have recently noticed
dead moles lying on the ground,sometimes they have obviously been chewed
on,then seemingly spat out as if what ever started to eat it decided that
mole isn't such a hot feast after all?

other times they are seen undamaged,with no signs of puncture or bite marks.I wonder if the moles that I am finding are the results of fighting
amongst the highly territorial males round about this time of year?

any similar sightings

matt

 

[johnruss]

while walking around footpaths near my home I have recently noticed
dead moles lying on the ground,sometimes they have obviously been chewed
on,then seemingly spat out as if what ever started to eat it decided that
mole isn't such a hot feast after all?

other times they are seen undamaged,with no signs of puncture or bite marks.I wonder if the moles that I am finding are the results of fighting
amongst the highly terratorial males round about this time of year?

any similar sightings

matt

Don't know about the territorial fights of moles but i have seen moles and voles spead out on a fox run. Seems the fox hurries along hunting then returns and picks up the cache and takes them home to the young kits. But if something would interfere then they would be left.

 

[Kezza]

A country park ranger once pointed out several dead ones on a guided walk through riverside fields and said that they often die of dehydration at this time of the year.

 

[aythya_hybrid]

A few dead moles in my area as well, although I have no knowledge as to why this shoudl be....

 

[Kezza]

I found a dead one in my garden yesterday morning. Very sad. Poor thing didn't looked eaten or chewed at all.

 

[nirofo]

I don't know about moles lying on the track but I do know the moles here have a problem with the local gamekeeper, he'll go out of his way to trap anything, moles included!

Here's a photo of his gibbet.

nirofo.

 

[matt green]

when will these people grow out of this...sickening :-C

matt

 

[Surreybirder]

Apparently moles taste disgusting.

 

[Gill Osborne]

The more I meet born & bred country folk Matt the more I realise the majority of them know bugger all about wildlife!!! :storm:
My neighbour is a lady in her 80's and until ten years ago she farmed a few acres with her hubby. She's lived in the countryside all her life. A few weeks ago I was chatting to her and mentioned that I MUST catch up with cuckoos this year as I haven't even heard one for at least two years. Well, she said there was often one calling away on the roof of our cottage.....and last week she pointed it out to me. Yep, you guessed it - Collared Dove!!! :-O I just smiled sweetly LOL No point putting them right as they don't believe you Country folk know more than townies after all!

I also used to have moles in my front garden when we lived up in the hills last year......my neighbour had the typical 'blast it to death unless it's a game bird' mentality of a lot of folk up here and it drove him demented when I refused to let him come into my garden to kill 'my' mole! And the funniest bit was that the mole didn't go over to his side of the garden either Obviously knew where it's friends were! 3

Still never seen a live mole though.....couple of dead ones by the roadside and that's it!

I'm sure I once read that they taste rather yucky - bit like shrews which are also insectivores. Don't know if there's a link there or not...need to do some reading........

 

[nirofo]

Apparently moles taste disgusting.

Do you mean to tell me you've never tried them?

nirofo.

 

[Surreybirder]

Do you mean to tell me you've never tried them?

nirofo.

Correct - but our neighbour's dog did and wasn't impressed.
We caught one in our garden recently.
I let it go down the fields.
Ken

 

[Rewcastle]

I don't know about moles lying on the track but I do know the moles here have a problem with the local gamekeeper, he'll go out of his way to trap anything, moles included!

Here's a photo of his gibbet.

nirofo.

In the olden days the molecatcher used to get paid by the amount of moles he trapped and caught, to prove that he was doing his job properly and not ripping people off they used to hang them on the fence wire, hence the tradition which you have photographed.

Later on some gamekeepers and some farmers started to use strychnine, as moles are carnivorous once they poisoned one the other moles would come along and eat the poisoned one. Although the posioned moles usually stayed underground, this was no guarantee and there was nothing stopping a fox digging them up.

On the bright side, at least they are been trapped and aren't been poisoned, which could be a threat to the local bird population. I've seen many a carrion sitting on the wires picking away at the moles hanging.

Rewcastle.

 

[Farnboro John]

Correct - but our neighbour's dog did and wasn't impressed.
We caught one in our garden recently.
I let it go down the fields.
Ken

Did you catch it on the surface or dig it out?

I have one old poorly focused picture of a mole that was scuttling along a Pennine road but would like to improve on it!

Anyone any ideas?

John

 

[Surreybirder]

Did you catch it on the surface or dig it out?

I have one old poorly focused picture of a mole that was scuttling along a Pennine road but would like to improve on it!

Anyone any ideas?

John

It was sitting on our lawn... perhaps it was dehydrated!
It burrowed off fast enough when I released it. They'd be hard to photo in the wild, I should imagine, but cute!
Ken

 

[Touty]

while walking around footpaths near my home I have recently noticed
dead moles lying on the ground,sometimes they have obviously been chewed
on,then seemingly spat out as if what ever started to eat it decided that
mole isn't such a hot feast after all?

other times they are seen undamaged,with no signs of puncture or bite marks.I wonder if the moles that I am finding are the results of fighting
amongst the highly territorial males round about this time of year?

any similar sightings

matt

Do what a long-gone old friend of mine once did. Collect them up and sell them in the pub as cuddly toys for a fiver each! Having trousered about £50 (selling them to a group of skinheads who put them head up and paws out in each pocket of the pool table) he went back into the pub (in Kentish Town) about 2 months later and a very large skinhead came up demanding his money back saying ''ere! that cuddly mole you sold me... I 'ad to chuck it aht! started to stink, it did!" Terry paid up and legged it and never went back to Kentish Town again.

 

[buzzard12]

Dont know a lot about moles, but I do know that my mates cat wont eat them. My mates bat eats eveything else on the planet....
QED; Moles taste like ****!

 

[matt green]

Do what a long-gone old friend of mine once did. Collect them up and sell them in the pub as cuddly toys for a fiver each! Having trousered about £50 (selling them to a group of skinheads who put them head up and paws out in each pocket of the pool table) he went back into the pub (in Kentish Town) about 2 months later and a very large skinhead came up demanding his money back saying ''ere! that cuddly mole you sold me... I 'ad to chuck it aht! started to stink, it did!" Terry paid up and legged it and never went back to Kentish Town again.

haha..what to do with dead moles?

reminds me of a book I once read about the antics of old 'norfoke foke'

one professional mole catcher saved them up and had a mole skin waistcoat
made by the tailer int town,bit of a tradition amongst mole catchers of old!

moleskin stay on cover for ya swarovski scope anyone?

matt

 

[NYSte]

I found one dead on my lawn a few weeks back. Last year we had a few mole hills but they vanished a long time ago so it was strange to see it as it wasn't very clear where it had come from.

Because of this I thought it might have been dropped by our cat (Even though it is too lazy to catch anything!) but there was no sign of any teeth marks or scratches. It looked like it had literally just died naturally, maybe as suggested by Kezza through dehydration?

The only positive was being able to see such a cute little animal close up as they're normally very elusive.