Moles Smell in Stereo: The Nose Knows Moles may not be the
prettiest mammals or the most interesting, but they sure can
smell. New research from a scientist at Vanderbilt University
shows that the common mole can smell in stereo. Moles have a bad
sense of eyesight, which caused it to evolve a highly developed
sense of smell. It also needs to dig for its food, which means
that it needs to be able to sniff out where it is. Kenneth
Catania, who conducted the research, placed a common mole in a
semicircular arena with a chopped up bit of earthworm as bait.
After wiggling its nose, the mole would beeline to the
earthworm. Yet Catania wasn't satisfied with merely observing
the basics of the mole's sniffing capabilities. He wanted to
test just how powerful the mammal's nose was. Like Us on
Facebook Catania first plugged one of the mole's nostrils with a
short piece of plastic tubing. This caused the mole to veer off
course in the direction of the open nostril when placed in the
same arena with the earthworm. Then, C