探索发现：自然界最惊人的“速食者”(图)

　　Where can you find nature’s fastest forager?

　　Star-nosed moles, the only species of mole that lives in swamps and marshes, are capable of foraging and eating prey with lightning speed. These hamster-size mammals can locate and gobble down worms and insects in less time than it takes the driver of a car to brake at a sudden red light.

　　The secret of the star-mole’s millisecond speed is its strange-looking nose. The 22 fleshy rays surrounding the mole’s nose contain more than 25,000 microscopic touch receptors. The mole uses its specialized nose to literally feel its way around its subterranean habitat.

　　Star-nosed moles (Condylura cristata) live in wetlands ranging from central Canada down through the eastern United States to Georgia.

　　Researchers have found that the moles move too fast for the human eye to follow, operating near the upper limits of their nervous system’s ability to process the information their noses collect. This allows the mole to forage at almost twice the rate of its cousin, the eastern mole.