Video title: Star-nosed mole
Noses come in all shapes and sizes: pointy, long, moist, even runny ... yuk!
Noses aren't just for breathing and smelling.
Elephant noses are flexible trunks, great for exploring and bathing.
The anteater's elongated snout is ideal for hunting insects.
And the large nose of the male proboscis monkey is said to be an attraction to the opposite sex!
proboscis monkey
But the prize for the most remarkable must surely go to the star-nosed mole.
star-nosed mole
This fascinating animal lives mostly underground in the dark.
Its eyes are not very well developed and the mole is almost blind.
Instead, the mole gets most of its information about the world through its nose.
There is a circle of 22 pink, fleshy tentacles at the end of its snout.
The mole can identify food, such as worms and insects, just by touching them.
This identification process happens at lightning speed.
The tentacles send lots of information about the prey to the mole's brain, and work with the mole's tweezer-like incisor teeth to capture it and eat it.
The star-nosed mole can find and eat eight different pieces of food in under two seconds.
Thanks to its incredible nose, the star-nosed mole holds the record for being the fastest eating mammal.
The star-nosed mole uses its nose to identify food by touch.
Noses aren't just for breathing and smelling.
Elephant noses are flexible trunks, great for exploring and bathing.
The anteater's elongated snout is ideal for hunting insects.
And the large nose of the male proboscis monkey is said to be an attraction to the opposite sex!
proboscis monkey
But the prize for the most remarkable must surely go to the star-nosed mole.
star-nosed mole
This fascinating animal lives mostly underground in the dark.
Its eyes are not very well developed and the mole is almost blind.
Instead, the mole gets most of its information about the world through its nose.
There is a circle of 22 pink, fleshy tentacles at the end of its snout.
The mole can identify food, such as worms and insects, just by touching them.
This identification process happens at lightning speed.
The tentacles send lots of information about the prey to the mole's brain, and work with the mole's tweezer-like incisor teeth to capture it and eat it.
The star-nosed mole can find and eat eight different pieces of food in under two seconds.
Thanks to its incredible nose, the star-nosed mole holds the record for being the fastest eating mammal.
The star-nosed mole uses its nose to identify food by touch.
Discover the most unusual nose in the animal kingdom!
Learning points
Embed this video
Copy and paste the embed code above to include this video on other websites.