Deep beneath the wetlands of eastern North America lives one of the strangest hunters on Earth. The star-nosed mole is tiny, nearly blind and rarely seen above ground, yet scientists say it may possess the fastest hunting system ever recorded in nature. What makes the animal remarkable is not strength or speed in the traditional sense. It is the astonishing way its brain and sensory system work together in complete darkness.
The star-nosed mole, scientifically known as Condylura cristata, does not resemble the kind of predator that usually captures public imagination. It is small, lives underground and spends most of its life moving through muddy tunnels in wetlands and river edges across eastern North America.
