New York’s records for the hairy-tailed mole cluster around Adirondack Park, the Finger Lakes, and Catskill Park, 360 records in a state where this species sits in the middle of the pack for how often it’s recorded.
A mole built for well-drained hill country
Unlike New York’s star-nosed mole, which favors soggy lowland soil, the hairy-tailed mole wants firm, well-drained ground: sandy or loamy soil under deciduous or mixed forest, pastures, and old fields. The Adirondack foothills, the rolling uplands of the Finger Lakes, and the Catskill high country all offer that drier, better-drained soil, which likely explains why records concentrate there rather than in New York’s wetter lowlands.
The tail gives it away
The name is the field mark. Its short, distinctly hairy tail sets it apart at a glance from New York’s other common moles, the naked-tailed eastern mole and the star-nosed mole with its fringe of pink tentacles. Like other moles it digs two kinds of tunnels: shallow surface runs that show up as raised ridges in a lawn or pasture, and deeper permanent burrows used through winter. It feeds almost entirely on earthworms and soil-dwelling insect larvae.
Summer records, not a summer-only animal
Records peak in June and July, but that’s more a reporting pattern than a biological one. Hairy-tailed moles stay active underground year-round without sleeping through winter; they’re just easier for someone to notice, mostly through fresh surface ridges, once the ground softens and lawns and gardens get more foot traffic.
Status in New York
NatureServe ranks the hairy-tailed mole S5, secure, and it’s native to New York. It holds a steady presence across the state’s better-drained upland forest and farmland, a quieter counterpart to the wetland-loving star-nosed mole.
