Star-nose Mole

This little feller, a Star-nose mole, is known to be a good swimmer and can forage along the bottoms of streams and ponds. However, he met his match when he decided to take a dip in our pool. As you can see from the picture above he didn't fare too well.

The Star-nosed mole is not a rodent but rather one of the most distinctive mammal species. The startling nose appendages immediately set this mole apart from the five other North American species. This odd-looking mammal sports a grotesque crown of 22 fleshy tendrils around its snout, which can detect and gulp down its prey at a speed too fast for the human eye to follow, even though the animal is virtually blind.

From the moment that it touches insect larva with its proboscis, it takes just 230 milliseconds to check that it is edible and gobble it up. This is the fastest known reaction time in the animal kingdom, taking less than half the 650 milliseconds that a human driver needs to brake for a red light.