Species: Scapanus townsendii
Townsend's Mole
Species
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Encyclopedia of Puget Sound
Classification
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Craniata
Class
Mammalia
Order
Soricomorpha
Family
Talpidae
Genus
Scapanus
NatureServe
Classification
Other Global Common Names
taupe de Townsend
Informal Taxonomy
Animals, Vertebrates - Mammals - Other Mammals
Formal Taxonomy
Animalia - Craniata - Mammalia - Soricomorpha - Talpidae - Scapanus
Ecology and Life History
Migration
true - false - false
Non-migrant
true
Locally Migrant
false
Food Comments
Diet mainly consists of earthworms and insect larvae and pupae; also consumes centipedes, slugs, mature insects, spiders, and some vegetable matter.
Reproduction Comments
Mating takes place in February. One litter of averaging 3 young is born in late March or early April. Young are hairless at birth, grow rapidly, disperse from maternal tunnels mainly in May and June (van Zyll de Jong 1983). Sexually mature in about 10 months.
Ecology Comments
Generally solitary and antagonistic toward other individuals. Home range up to at least 116 m in diameter. Population density may be as high as 12/ha (van Zyll de Jong 1983). Young disperse up to several hundred meters from natal site (mean around 170-180 m) (see Carraway et al. 1993).
Length
24
Weight
168
Conservation Status
NatureServe Global Status Rank
G5
Global Status Last Reviewed
1996-11-04
Global Status Last Changed
1996-11-04
Distribution
Conservation Status Map
<img src="http://www.natureserve.org/explorer/servlet/GetMapGif?CA.BC=S1&US.CA=SNR&US.OR=S4&US.WA=S5" alt="Conservation Status Map" style="width: 475px; height: auto;" />
Global Range
FG - 20,000-2,500,000 square km (about 8000-1,000,000 square miles) - FG - Extreme southwestern British Columbia southward through the Olympic Mountains (Washington) and Coast Range and interior valleys of Oregon (eastward to the foothills of the Cascades) to Ferndale, California, where restricted to the coast; from near sea level to at least 1677 m in the Cascade Mountains and 1615 m in the Olympic Mountains (Verts and Carraway 1998; Carraway et al. 1993).
Global Range Code
FG
Global Range Description
20,000-2,500,000 square km (about 8000-1,000,000 square miles)