The Golden Mole: and Other Living Treasure: 'A rare and magical book.' Bill Bryson

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Rundell’s selection is rangy and personalised. There’s bound to be animals one feels to have been unfairly overlooked, and I would have liked to see her on at least one bird of prey, or declining beetle, or endangered cat. The Bengal tiger would have been too much to ask: a whole book would be required to explore the references and resonances that accompany it. The lynx, though, is secretive and mysterious enough not to have already exhausted our cultural imaginations, and could fit snugly into one of these short entries. Some animals that would have most brilliantly galvanised Rundell in the telling and fit well into her format, rich as they are in folklore, misunderstanding and wild factoids, are doing just fine. The spotted hyena, much maligned and endlessly fascinating in terms of legend and science, by and large doesn’t need the help of a book like this. Rundell’s latest LRB piece has been published this month, and is on hummingbirds. As it’s not included here, maybe there’s a second edition of this golden treasury being planned. Springer M.S., Stanhope M.J., Madsen O. & de Jong W.W. 2004. Molecules consolidate the placental mammal tree. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 19:430–438.

The Golden Mole: an Account of Vanishing Treasure

Eberle, Ute (9 February 2022). "Life in the soil was thought to be silent. What if it isn't?". Knowable Magazine. doi: 10.1146/knowable-020922-2. S2CID 246770511. a b Asher, Robert J.; Maree, Sarita; Bronner, Gary; Bennett, Nigel C.; Bloomer, Paulette; Czechowski, Paul; Meyer, Matthias; Hofreiter, Michael (9 March 2010). "A phylogenetic estimate for golden moles (Mammalia, Afrotheria, Chrysochloridae)". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 10 (1): 69. doi: 10.1186/1471-2148-10-69. PMC 2850353. PMID 20214773. S2CID 2276457. Seymour, R. S., Withers, P. C. & Weathers, W. W. 1998. Energetics of burrowing, running and free-living in the Namib Desert golden mole ( Eremitalpa namibensis). Journal of Zoology, London 244: 107-117.

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Of the 21 species of golden mole, no fewer than 11 are threatened with extinction. The primary cause being human-induced habitat loss. Additionally sand mining, poor agricultural practices, and predation by domestic cats and dogs are causes of population decline.

Consider the Golden Mole · LRB 18 April 2019 Katherine Rundell · Consider the Golden Mole · LRB 18 April 2019

Most other species construct both foraging superficial burrows and deeper permanent burrows for residence. Residential burrows are relatively complex in form and may penetrate as far as 1 metre (3ft 3in) below ground and include deep chambers for use for refuge, and other chambers as latrines. They push excavated soil up to the surface, as in mole-hills, or compact it into the tunnel walls. Willi, U. B., Bronner, G. N. & Narins P. M. 2005a. Ossicular differentiation of airborne and seismic stimuli in the Cape golden mole ( Chrysochloris asiatica). Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology 192(3): 267-277. Mason, M. J. & Narins, P. M. 2001. Seismic signal use by fossorial mammals. American Zoologist 41: 1171-1184.http://www.arkive.org/species/GES/mammals/Neamblysomus_julianae/ ARKive, images of Endangered Juliana’s golden mole Simonetta, A. M. 1968. A new golden mole from Somalia with an appendix on the taxonomy of the family Chrysochloridae (Mammalia: Insectivora). Monitore zoologici italiana, Supplement 2: 27-55. Digimorph Digiital morphology account of the golden mole skeleton (genus c hrysochloris) Literature Cited Narins, P.M.; Losin, N.; O'Connell-Rodwell, C.E. (2009). "Seismic and Vibrational Signals in Animals". Encyclopedia of Neuroscience. pp.545–549. doi: 10.1016/B978-008045046-9.01826-X. ISBN 978-0-08-045046-9. Roberts, A. 1951. The Mammals of South Africa. Trustees of the “Mammals of South Africa” Book Fund, Pretoria. 700 pp.

Golden Mole by Richard Girling | Waterstones The Hunt for the Golden Mole by Richard Girling | Waterstones

Broom, R. 1915. On the Organ of Jacobsen and its relations in the "Insectivora". Part II. Talpa, Centetes and Chrysochloris. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 25:347-354. Bronner, G. N. 1995b. Systematic revision of the golden mole genera Amblysomus, Chlorotalpa and Calcochloris (Insectivora: Chrysochloromorpha; Chrysochloridae). Ph.D. thesis, University of Natal, Durban. The highly restricted distributions of some species, often in remote areas not easily accessible to biologists; a b Kuyper, Margaret (1984). Macdonald, D. (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Mammals. New York: Facts on File. pp. 764–765. ISBN 978-0-87196-871-5.Willi, U. B., Bronner, G. N. & Narins P. M. 2005b. Middle ear dynamics in response to seismic stimuli in the Cape golden mole ( Chrysochloris asiatica). Journal of Experimental Biology 209: 302-313

The Golden Mole by Katherine Rundell, Talya Baldwin - Waterstones

The very limited reproductive data available (for only a few species) suggest that golden moles breed throughout the year, perhaps with a peak in the wetter months when prey is more abundant, and may be polyoestrous (Bernard et al. 1994; Schoeman et al. 2004). Litter sizes are small (usually 2) and post-natal development is extended, reaching up to 45 days in the Cape golden mole. BehaviorWhen it comes to what we should do, however, things get a bit woolly. After a typically vivid account of seahorse courtship and reproduction, Rundell urges us to “remember the seahorse” every morning and “scream with awe and not stop screaming until we fall asleep” or, a bit more practically, to “refuse to eat anything that is taken from the ocean by overexploitative nonselective fishing”. Elsewhere, she makes the rather vague suggestion that we “urgently seek out ways to aid child nutrition” in impoverished countries, so that people there are not forced to hunt endangered creatures. It is a pity that this element of the book is so thin and impractical. Yet Rundell is incapable of writing a dull sentence and it could hardly be bettered as an exuberant celebration of everything from bats, crows and hedgehogs to narwhals and wombats It is among my proudest boasts, that I was massive Rundell fan before she became a national treasure." A historical tendency to focus biological attention on the larger, charismatic mammals while overlooking smaller-sized mammalian groups that are more diverse, ancient and often more deserving of conservation concern. Rundell shows us that the human imagination often looks pedestrian next to nature’s real ingenuity; our fairytales can seem like mundane placeholders for more wonderful truths. It was once proposed that storks “wintered on the moon”; we couldn’t have imagined that a mere two centuries later their wings would reveal the key to human fight. No Roman naturalist or German scholastic would have dared suggest swifts fly the equivalent of five times round the Earth every year. The US Navy models underwater missiles on the body shape of bluefin tuna. But biotech is yet to emulate the properties of the golden orb spider’s web, which can last years.