Nature Quest: White-tailed mole found after 167 yrs

Captured by tea-labourers in Fulchhari Tea Estate of Srimangal, a small black mole was rescued and brought to Sitesh Dev's "Bannaprani Shebashrom" on March 9.

It was thought to be a Himalayan Mole (Euroscaptor micrura), which is occasionally found in the hilly areas of greater Sylhet and Chittagong Hill Tracts regions.

I was expecting to get another species of mole named White-tailed Mole (Parascaptor leucura), which was reported from Sylhet by Edward Blyth in 1850 when he first described it.

It was never found since then, so its name was not listed in the "Encyclopedia of Flora and Fauna of Bangladesh, Vol. 27, Mammals" (2009) and the most recently published "Red List of Bangladesh, Vol 2, Mammals" (2015).

I was optimistic that the species was still found in Bangladesh like in the neighbouring northeast India, Myanmar and China.

Therefore, in the early morning of March 10, I rushed to Srimangal to inspect and photograph the animal. It was clearly a White-tailed Mole (it can be called "Sada-leji Chika"), because it had the characteristic short white tail. In contrast, the Himalayan Mole has short black tail. Its head-body length, as I measured, was 11.5cm and tail 0.8cm.

Since moles are mostly found underground and under fallen leaves, it is difficult to see them. They have velvety black fur that enables them to move at any direction through underground tunnel. They have shovel-shaped fore-paws used in digging soil. They have long snout and the heavily rely on scent, because they have small eyes covered by skin and they cannot see well. Rediscovery of this rare species indicates extreme richness of wildlife in Bangladesh.

Unfortunately, the captured mole died in afternoon of March 10, probably due to internal injury that it had while being captured by the tea-labourers.