European regional assessment: Least Concern (LC)
EU 27 regional assessment: Least Concern (LC)

This species is widespread throughout its European range and thought to be generally common in suitable habitats. Since there is currently no evidence to indicate any decline that approaches the threshold of Red List criteria, this species is assessed as Least Concern for both Europe and the EU27 Member States. However, detailed population data are lacking, and there is a risk that this species has been negatively impacted by anthropogenic-associated changes in soil quality and invertebrate prey availability. As such, effort should be made to quantify and monitor its abundance and response to threats.

The European Mole (Talpa europaea) occurs from Britain and France eastwards through much of continental Europe (Corbet 1978, Kryštufek 1999, Wilson and Reeder 2005). It is generally widespread on the European continent, although absent from the Iberian peninsula, southern Italy, and the southern Balkans (where it is replaced by other Talpa species). Its range extends in the east to Ukraine and European Russia (Moroz 2020). It is found on many islands in the Baltic and around the British coast, but it is not found on Ireland, Iceland, the North Sea islands, and the Mediterranean islands (with the exception of Cres in the northern Adriatic). In the UK, the European Mole is rare in upland areas such as the mountainous parts of Wales, the Yorkshire dales and moors, the Lake District, the Cumbrian fells, the southern uplands of Scotland and the Scottish Highlands (Atkinson 2013). It occurs from sea level to 2,700 m in Bulgaria (Kryštufek and Motokawa 2018).

Outside of Europe, it can be found further east in Russia approximately to Tyumen Oblast, western Siberia.

It is thought to be common in suitable habitats, with densities ranging from one individual per hectare (Mellanby 1971) to 16 per hectare (Kryštufek 1999), though more recent estimates are lacking. European Mole populations can persist in urban parks and other greenspaces of at least 10 hectares. It is sufficiently common to be considered a pest of farmland and lawns in many parts of its range. In Great Britain, population size has been estimated to be over 40 million individuals (Mathews et al. 2018). However, the population trend is unclear, with no quantification of overall European population trends made. The population in Britain has previously been suggested to be “stable” (Mathews et al. 2018), yet the People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES), drawing on data from the BTO/JNCC/RSPB’s Breeding Bird Survey, which since 1995 has also recorded mammal sightings and signs including molehills, note that there is some indication of a decline since 2000 (PTES 2022) with the number of rural sites recording moles decreasing steadily since then (D. Wembridge pers. comm. 2022). The withdrawal of strychnine in the UK in 2006 has not been associated with an increase in mole numbers (Baker et al. 2016).

In some areas of Russia, there is suggestion that abundance is low in polluted habitats (Nesterkova 2014). In the Luhansk Oblast in Ukraine, it has been described as “sporadic and non-abundant” (Moroz 2020). Additionally, the European Mole is considered Endangered in the Red Book of Mammals of Croatia (Tvrtković 2006) where the last Mediterranean insular population of the European Mole can be found on the island of Cres. Thus, although it is a widespread species, it may be less abundant, or declining, in some regions of Europe, but further data are needed.

The European Mole is a fossorial mammal and spends most of its time in extensive burrow systems which can take up to 220 days to construct, and be in excess of 1,000 m in total length (Atkinson 2013). It is present in most habitats where there is sufficiently deep soil to permit the construction of its burrows, in both rural and urban areas. It prefers meadows, pastures, arable land, gardens and parks, and is rarely found in coniferous forests, or habitats with sandy, stony or permanently waterlogged soils (Kryštufek 1999). Its habitat use is further restricted by highly acidic soils containing low densities of important prey. It feeds mainly on earthworms, but also other soil invertebrates (Niethammer 1990). Earthworm abundance can predict mole abundance (Funmilayo 1977). Range areas are small, measuring approximately 0.1-2 ha for females and 0.3-4 ha for males (Loy et al. 1992), though there is no significant difference between non-breeding males and females (Macdonald et al. 1997). They are solitary and aggressively territorial except for a brief mating period when females accept males into their territories. Generally, moles move more in the summer, covering a kilometre or more a day, and least in the winter, when they travel a few hundred metres. Correspondingly, moles dig very little in the summer but for about four hours a day in winter. This difference may be accounted for by the need for moles to commit to digging in the wetter months when soils are softer, which reduces the time available to travel widely. Young moles can colonise unoccupied areas at the rate of two to three kilometres a year. This species often has three peaks of activity per day, interspersed with sleep (Macdonald et al. 1997, Andreychev 2021). Male moles are generally more active than females likely due to their larger bodies and feeding requirements; weights have been recorded to range between 58-122g (non-pregnant females) and 65-133g (males; Atkinson 2013).

In the past, this mole species was hunted in great numbers for its fur, and although this has ceased today, it is still widely persecuted as a pest. Another risk to moles is the use of biocides and chemical products in agriculture (Bertolino et al. 2015, Beca et al. 2022) which pose a clear hazard to soil invertebrate prey (Gunstone et al. 2021), but possibly also to European Moles directly.

Other current and future anthropogenic changes to soil quality (which can affect both the prey base and suitability of the soil for moles’ tunnelling) that pose an unquantified but potentially substantial threat include soil compaction, erosion, pollution, salinisation, loss of organic matter, loss of biodiversity, inundation and landslide (Tóth et al. 2008). Threats to soil biodiversity include climate change (including through associated flooding and droughts), land use change, intensive human exploitation, decline in soil health and microplastics (Tibbett et al. 2020). Microplastics and/or nanoplastics in the soil may decrease the growth and survival of earthworms (Ji et al. 2021). Moles are susceptible to accidental poisoning by metals and other pollutants (see Nesterkova 2014, Nesterkova 2019).

Through predation of earthworms, particularly Lumbricus terrestris (an important mole prey species), the alien invasive New Zealand Flatworm (Arthurdendyus triangulatus) poses a potentially increasing threat to the European Mole (Murchie and Gordon 2013, Buglife 2022). Additionally, the European Mole may serve as a principal reservoir host of hantaviruses (Gu et al. 2013, Laenen et al. 2016) though the species-level implications of this are unclear.

Before the turn of the century, the European Mole was trapped for fur in many parts of its range. In the 1930s in the former Soviet Union, 23-31 million skins were traded annually. In the 1960s in Britain, up to a million skins were still being traded in a single year. Across much of its range, however, these numbers declined until the trade virtually disappeared by the 1980s (Kryštufek and Motokawa 2018). Today, harvesting for fur is not thought to be a prominent threat to the species, but the species remains persecuted by landowners, particularly where it creates molehills in parkland, sports fields, farmland or ornamental gardens. This practice is controlled in most countries where it occurs. Their status as pests, and hence the economic value of their control, has been questioned (Baker et al.2016).

Since the European Mole lives underground and is relatively poorly studied, there is a danger that any potential decline will escape notice. This species would therefore benefit from further, focused ecological research and population estimation and monitoring. With regard to conservation, effective measures may depend more on European- or worldwide-efforts to reduce the effects of climate change and other anthropogenic-driven impacts such as flooding, desertification, soil erosion, soil degradation and a reduction in soil invertebrate abundance. Control on agricultural or amenity land, or in gardens, if necessary, should be carried on a more detailed cost-benefit basis (Baker et al. 2016, Atkinson et al. 1994).

This species is listed in the Red Data Book of Voronezh (Kryštufek and Motokawa 2018) and the Red Book of Mammals of Croatia (Tvrtković 2006). It is protected in Germany by the Federal Act for the Protection of Nature (the Bundesnaturschutzgesetz) and throughout the European Union from strychnine poisoning following the withdrawal of strychnine.