New Jersey holds 27 occurrence records for the star-nosed mole, an animal easy to overlook even by mole standards, since most of its life plays out underground or underwater rather than on any visible surface.
Wet ground from the Kittatinny Ridge to the coast
The state’s confirmed locations trace a soggy thread across very different parts of New Jersey: stream banks near the Kittatinny Ridge at Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area in the north, cedar swamp margins deep in the Pine Barrens at Wharton State Forest, and freshwater marsh within Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge along the coast. Different bedrock, different forest, same requirement underneath it all: saturated soil and slow water the mole can tunnel through and swim in.
A nose built for touch, not sight
Twenty-two fleshy rays ring this mole’s nostrils, each one dense with touch receptors it taps rapidly against soil and prey to decide, almost instantly, whether something is food. Paired with tiny eyes, dark waterproof fur, and broad digging feet, that nose lets the mole hunt worms, insects, and small crustaceans both underground and underwater, often surfacing through a tunnel that opens directly into a stream or wetland pool. New Jersey’s records peak in May, which fits a species that digs and breeds hardest once the ground has softened after winter.
Status in New Jersey
NatureServe ranks the star-nosed mole S4, apparently secure, in New Jersey, and it’s native to the state. It persists wherever New Jersey still has the wet, diggable ground it depends on, from Highlands streambanks to Pine Barrens swamp edges to coastal marsh.
