The Star-Nosed Mole
Real animals that sound made up. Every claim in these episodes is checked against published science or museum sources.
The story
(14) The fastest eater in the mammal world has a nose shaped like a star. (20) Meet the star-nosed mole of eastern North America's wetlands. Ringing its snout are twenty-two fleshy feelers. (18) It's nearly blind, so it hunts by touch, tapping that star on the ground over and over. (14) In two thousand five, Vanderbilt researchers timed it with high-speed cameras.
(22) From first touch to swallow, it averaged about two hundred thirty milliseconds. The fastest bites came in at one hundred twenty. (16) Guinness lists it as the fastest-eating mammal. Its brain is working near the speed limit for touch. (14) What really happened? Nature's oddest nose earned its keep as the mammal world's fastest fork.