The elusive marsupial mole has been spotted near Uluru in Central Australia in an extremely rare sighting.
Key points:
- The marsupial mole is rarely seen above ground, with only five to 10 sightings a decade
- An Alice Springs shoemaker spotted the one on the road that circles Uluru
- Marsupial moles are completely blind, have no eyes and have golden silky fur
Alice Springs shoemaker James Young “was in shock and disbelief” when he and his partner spotted the marsupial.
The small, golden-coloured creature lives most of its life underground, and sightings occur about five to 10 times every decade.
The pair was travelling for work to the remote community of Mutitjulu, near Uluru, when Mr Young saw an animal ahead on the road.
“I’m quite attuned to wildlife,” he said.
“I’ve previously worked in land management, so I immediately thought, ‘There’s a thorny devil on the road’.
“But as I got closer, I realised it was a marsupial mole crossing the road in broad daylight.”
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Mr Young knew how rare it was to see a marsupial mole, having worked with Joe Benshemesh, Australia’s pre-eminent mole expert, in 2005.
He immediately pulled the car over and sprinted back up the road.
“I carried it to a safe distance 20 metres off the road where it looked pretty soft and sandy,” Mr Young said.
“It just sort of paddled along for a couple of metres and then started to burrow.”
Golden fur and no eyes
The marsupial mole is distinctive in its appearance and is completely blind, with no visible eyes.
It has “silky” golden fur, a pink bulbous nose and spade-like claws for burrowing up to 80 centimetres into the sand.
Being a marsupial, it has a pouch, but it faces backwards to prevent sand filling it while tunnelling.
Rachel Paltridge is a threatened species ecologist with the Indigenous Desert Alliance and says the mole has a unique way of getting about.
“They sort of swim through the sand,” she says, with its arms, legs and tail leaving a distinctive trail of three wavy lines.
Little is known about the marsupial mole because it largely lives underground, but Ms Paltridge has studied its tracks and droppings, known as scats, to understand the elusive animal.
“I’ve been working in the desert for 30 years and I’ve only ever seen one,” she said.
“I was lucky enough to be with the Kiwirrkurra rangers when they caught one, but they dug that one up. It wasn’t on the surface.”
Ms Paltridge has seen also seen marsupial mole remains while doing analyses of cat, dingo and fox scats.
“They’re still a total mystery,” she said.
“In fox scats, their beautiful silky fur has turned up and their little spade-like claws.”
Rare but no longer threatened
Believed to be prevalent throughout the sandy desert, evidence of marsupial moles has been found in Western Australia and down through the Simpson Desert using a trenching method developed by Dr Benshemesh.
“That’s why they were taken off the endangered species list, even though they’re very rarely seen,” Ms Paltridge said.
“Their signs are detected everywhere.”
Ms Paltridge explains there are actually two types of marsupial mole – the northern marsupial mole, known as Kakarratul in Pintupi, and the southern marsupial mole, called Itjaritjari in Pitjantjatjara.
“Most of the sightings over the last 20 years have been down there [at Uluru],” she said.