Almost 5 years ago we published THIS VIDEO of a mole walking down the street in Belcarra, following up a photo that we posted which caused a bit of a stir; people thought it was a fake or a stuffed animal. It's hard to believe that these strange little creatures are sharing our space with us but I was reminded of them again this week when Kate Colley (who you may remember from 500 COFFEES #68) Instagrammed the photo below of a mole she came across near her home in the city.
I asked Kate if she might share the story of the discovery of this mole, and she was happy to oblige. If you ever see one of these dudes crawling around the city please shoot photos of it and reach out to us so we can share the story here on the blog!
Words and photos: Kate Colley
Our new neighbourhood at the top of North Boundary road at the very edge of East Vancouver is quite the hub of activity and the views of the city to the west are spectacular. My son Max and I head up to Boundary on balmy evenings to watch the cavalcade of long boarders that are absolutely awesome entertainment. Last night we were watching them speed down the hill doing their tricks and then walk up the long hill to do it all over again. Pretty much all 20 of us took notice of this funny little furry creature rambling up the steep hill. When approached, the little thing just kept moving at the same pace – so it was clearly not a mouse or a rat as I first thought. It was actually already moving at top speed. Turns out it was a mole and just the previous day my new neighbour had told me that the original owner of our 1968 built house had “waged a war” with the moles – conjuring up images of “mole hills” from cartoons.
The mole was a big hit with the longboarders, my 4 year old and me. None of us had ever seen such a creature before. He was so interesting to look at. He was designed to dig and his front paws literally come out of the side of his head (I’m assuming it was a “he”) with a funny long wiggly snout and velvety fur. He was incredibly cute.
One of the long boarders – apparently the female world longboarding champ (if what I heard was true) held him and everyone checked him out.
Then he checked out a long board and decided not to ride but rather to head back into the grassy field nearby.
The mole was SO interesting so I googled it and learned that they have invisible eyes and ears, incredible digging power, and are not really benevolent but rather a pest. They set clever traps for their earth worm prey and love digging up holes in the garden and lawn. They are so velvety they used to be used for fur coats and they are apparently edible and fairly tasty.
