A Nose of a Different Color

The star-nosed mole has an unusual snout with 11 pairs of pink appendages that form its nose. More than 100,000 nerve fibers run from its nose to its brain, which is six times the amount that connects a human’s hand to its brain. It is the fastest-eating mammal, taking as few as 120 milliseconds to identify and consume its food. It can also smell underwater by exhaling air bubbles onto objects and then inhaling the bubbles to get the smell back through the nose. This ever-so-interesting animal is found in wet lowland areas in eastern Canada and the north-eastern United States.