Mole-Rats

Not to be confused with Mallrats. Mole-Rat is a general term for a number of unrelated groups of burrowing rodents, called blesmols.

The Naked Mole-Rat is probably the more unusual looking of the burrowing rodents, they are from the horn of Africa. They are  about 8-10 cm long and can live for up to 30 years, substantially longer then other rodents.

This study suggests due to their long life and unusual resistance to disease, in particular cancer, they would be particularly useful in genome experiments.

It is unclear if this truly is a mole rat, although it has been called so. Image from @JillJ_194 (origin unknown). But it is too good a photo not to include.

It seems our Glass Jar of Moles is not the only one with ther own twitter account. The Naked Mole Rat has one too; @TehNakedMoleRat (Described as: @Eusocialist. Tunneller. Warrior. The Sabre-Toothed Sausage – BBC)

This naked mole-rat came from a zoo. Image from here. Courtesy of Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium

For more information on these Zambian mole-rats (and on this image) click here.

Physical Object available to view at UCL Museums (search Grant Museum Catalogue: Z1460 ).

Digital Object – Online sources. (search arkive.org for more variations).

Physical Object borrowed from non UCL Museum collection. Available to view ( At Pittsburgh Zoo, among many others).

Mole Feet Amulets

These two mole’s feet were carried in a pocket as an amulet to protect from toothache, collected in England (around 1933). They are part of the Pitt Rivers Museum. For much more details on this object and to see related objects please visit their online catalogue.

Image credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images

Digital Object – Online sources.

Physical Object borrowed from non UCL Museum collection. Available to view (Here in the Pitt Rivers Museum Catalogue).

Hello my name is Mole.

This image is from here.

Adrian Mole, although fictional, is one of the most famous people with the surname Mole. He is the main character in ‘The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 3/4’.  There are seven other books in the series and he is so popular there is a whole Wiki page about him.

Books. Published by Methuen, between 1982-2009. Author: Sue Townsend.

There are many other (real) people with the surname ‘Mole’.

Physical Object borrowed from non UCL Museum collection. Available to view (here in the British Library).

Digital Object – online sources.

Physical Object available to buy.

 

The Star Nosed Mole.

The image came from here. (from ‘The Animal House: Anatomy Counts’)

Online these unusual little creatures don’t have many friends, often begin called ugly.

For more information about how the moles ‘see’ through their noses check out Smithsonian.com

This video is from Arkivr.org. full video credits are available on this page.

The head and jaw of one of these can be found in the Cambridge Museum of Zoology (UMZC No.E.5371.D)

Digital Objects – Online sources (search arkive.org for more variants).

Physical Object borrowed from non UCL Museum collection. Available to view (Here in the Cambridge Museum of Zoology (UMZC No.E.5371.D) ).

Mr. Mole and Mole Hill

Wind and the Willows is possibly one of the most famous English story’s that features a mole. It was originally produced as a book written by Kenneth Grahame and published by Methuen in 1908 and since then a number of abridged versions have been published by many. More details can be found here.

BBC produced a radio version in 1983 read by Bernard Cribbins. This is available to listen to here.

It has been shown on television in a variety of formats including this Thames Television production (1989)

Uploaded to YouTube by feverpitch96 on 11 Jan 2010.

This is the opening titles to the 1980s Cosgrove-Hall television series of The Wind In The Willows. The theme tune is sung by Ralph McTell.

Wind in the Willows is current inception is as a theatre production by Royal Opera House.

The Vaudeville Theatre play at the Royal Opera House is available to see until the end of January 2015. Choreographed and directed by Will Tuckett. Find out more at http://www.roh.org.uk/willows.

Uploaded to You tube by Royal Opera House on 9 Nov 2012.

Physical Object borrowed from non UCL Museum collection. Many versions available to view (here in the British Library).

Physical Object available to view/buy.

Digital Objects – Online sources.

The Intelligent Mole

A ‘Mole’ is another name for a spy.

We know them best via the government agency’s MI6, the CIA and Mossad. These intelligence agency’s have become popularised through film and television programmes, such as ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’ by John Le Carré (1974).

This is a trailer from the film adapted from Le Carré‘s book (2011). Director: Tomas Alfredson. For full film credits click here.

If you wish to know more the CIA produced this review:

U-Oct 1993- Of Moles – Molehunters – A Review of Counterintelligence Literature- 1977-92 -v2

Physical Object borrowed from non UCL Museum collection. Available to view (Le Carré‘s book is here in the British Library).

 Physical Object available to view/buy .

Digital Objects – Online sources