The most well studied aspect of communication in this species is foot drumming. Foot drumming is used by males to call females during the breeding season, but it can also be used to warn other animals that a burrow is occupied. Foot drumming contains both auditory and seismic components. Seismic vibrations have been shown to propagate at least an order of magnitude better than airborne sound between the burrow systems of G. capensis. It is more sensible that cape mole rats use seismic signals over auditory communication because seismic signals travel better and farther underground. It is not know how detection of seismic waves is accomplished in this species, although it is theorized that it is a form of bone conduction. Vocal communication is used, but usually only when the animals are in close proximity to each other.
Chemical signaling and the sense of smell are probably used as well. Tactile communication occurs between mates, rivals, and between mothers and their young. Although this species has eyes, it is unlikely, given their fossorial existence, that they use many visual signals in communication.
Communication Channels: tactile ; acoustic ; chemical
Other Communication Modes: vibrations
Perception Channels: visual ; tactile ; acoustic ; vibrations ; chemical
Cape mole rats are not listed by IUCN or CITES.
CITES: no special status
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: least concern
Cape mole rats can have a negative impact on agricultural fields and crops.
Negative Impacts: crop pest
No information could be found on economic importance of cape mole rats.
Cape mole rats feed on tubors and roots and may affect plant communities. Their burrowing behavior probably helps to aerate the soil.
Ecosystem Impact: soil aeration
The diet of cape mole rats consists almost exclusively of below ground plant parts, although they have been know to ingest insects, especially ants. The main burrow of G. capensis is used for food storage of tubers, roots, and bulbs. Cape mole rats have been know to bite off the buds of bulbs and tubers to stop them from growing.
Animal Foods: insects
Plant Foods: roots and tubers
Foraging Behavior: stores or caches food
Primary Diet: herbivore (Eats sap or other plant foods)
Cape mole rats are found in the southwestern and southern parts of the Cape of Good Hope Province in South Africa.
Biogeographic Regions: ethiopian
Details of the habitat of this species are lacking in the literature. They apparently occur in areas where the soil is hard, and where tubers are available for food. They can be destructive to tuber crops, so they must be found in agrigultural areas.
Habitat Regions: temperate
Terrestrial Biomes: savanna or grassland
Other Habitat Features: agricultural
Georychus capensis may live as long as 3 years in the wild.
Range lifespan
Status: wild: 3 (high) years.
Average lifespan
Status: wild: 3.0 years.
Georychus capensis has a body length of 150 to 205 mm with a tail addint and additional 15 to 40 mm. Body mass averages about 181.8 g for males and 180.0 g for females. There is variation, however, and individuals may weigh as much as 350 g.
These animals have short limbs and a thick-set body. They have long, thick, fluffy pelage that can completely conceal the tail. The tail looks flattened due to hair along the sides.
They are buff to buff-orange in color with a lighter underside. The hands, feet, and tail of G. capensis are white and they have black or dark brown markings, with white spots on the face. The ears are round with thickened skin and there is a reduction of the eyes, ears and tail due to their fossorial existence.
The claws are relatively weak (considering they are burrowers) and both the claws and front feet are not well adapted to digging.
The incisors are used to loosen the dirt and the claws and front feet are used to move the loosened soil. The incisors are prominent and are not grooved.
It is normal for cape mole rats to have 3 pairs of mammae but 4 are not unusual.
Average mass: 181 g.
Range length: 150 to 205 mm.
Sexual Dimorphism: male larger
Other Physical Features: endothermic ; bilateral symmetry
Average mass: 181 g.
Average basal metabolic rate: 0.637 W.
No information could be found on predation in cape mole rats. It is likely that these animals do experience predation, probably by snakes, or by other animals capable of entering their burrows or digging them up.
Information on the mating system of G. capensis is not available. However, the beginning to the breeding season is signaled when males begin drumming. This behavior is apparently intended to signal females.
Breeding in cape mole rats occurs from August to December. Males call the females by drumming with their hind feet. This drumming usually occurs in June and marks the beginning of the breeding period. Gestation lasts 44 days. Females experience a postpartum estrus and can produce two litters during the season.
Cape mole rats produce an averag of 5.9 young per litter, although they may produce as few as 3 and as many as 10. Young are unfurred at birth, measure 30 to 40 mm, and weigh between 5 and 12 g.
The young develop quickly. Their eyes are open and the fur has grown in completely by the age of 9 days. By 17 days of age, young mole rats can eat solid food. Siblings become aggressive to one another, and disperse from their home by 60 days of age. Adult size is reached by the age of 260 days and young of the previous year breed before their first birthday.
Breeding interval: These animals breed only during the months of August to December, and can produce up to two litters during that time.
Breeding season: Breeding takes place between August amd December.
Range number of offspring: 3 to 10.
Average number of offspring: 5.9.
Average gestation period: 44 days.
Average weaning age: 17 days.
Average time to independence: 60 days.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female): 10 months.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male): 10 months.
Key Reproductive Features: iteroparous ; seasonal breeding ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual ; fertilization ; viviparous ; post-partum estrous
Average birth mass: 8.4 g.
Average gestation period: 44 days.
Average number of offspring: 5.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
Sex: male: 304 days.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
Sex: female: 304 days.
There are usually 3 to 10 young, born naked. The young are 30 to 40 mm long. The are weaned around the time they start eating solid food, at 17 days of age. No reports of male parental care exist, so it is likely that all care comes from the mother, who provides her offspring with protection, grooming, and milk.
Parental Investment: no parental involvement; altricial ; pre-fertilization (Protecting: Female); pre-hatching/birth (Provisioning: Female, Protecting: Female); pre-weaning/fledging (Provisioning: Female, Protecting: Female); pre-independence (Protecting: Female)
The Cape mole-rat (Georychus capensis) is a species of mole-rat endemic to South Africa. It is the only extant species currently described as belonging to the genus Georychus.
Cape mole-rats closely resemble other African mole-rats in physical appearance. They have cylindrical bodies with short limbs, and large feet with leathery soles. The head is large and rounded, and the tail is short, with only a few sparse hairs. As with other mole rats, external ears are absent. The eyes are very small, but they are functional, and when the animals exceptionally leave their tunnels, they see well enough to turn actively and present their powerful incisors to repel approaching attackers. Adults are around 16 centimetres (6.3 in) in head-body length, with a 2 centimetres (0.79 in) tail, and weigh around 180 grams (6.3 oz). Females have three pairs of teats.[2]
Cape mole-rats can most easily be distinguished from other species of mole-rat by the colour pattern of their fur. Most conspicuously, they have prominent white blazes around the ears and eyes, and smaller patches of white fur on the muzzle and often on top of the head. These white patches are the basis for the common name blesmol, Afrikaans for "blaze mole". Most of the fur is russet in colour over the rest of the body, with distinct, silvery-white underparts. The head is darker, sometimes even a charcoal grey shade. The hair on the feet is also white. Unlike the related Damaraland mole-rats, Cape mole-rats have no guard hairs, although there are slightly longer stiff hairs around the mouth and feet, and the animals do have stubby whiskers. Lacking guard hairs, the fur is thick and woolly in texture.[2]
Cape mole-rats inhabit forested and savannah regions across the coastal regions of Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces in South Africa. Isolated populations have also been reported from KwaZulu-Natal, just east of Lesotho, and from Mpumalanga.[1] Although there are no formally recognised subspecies, this may be due to limited research on the species, and it has been proposed that the mole rats of KwaZulu-Natal may represent an entirely distinct species.[3] They apparently prefer sandy loam, alluvium, or clay soils.[2]
Fossils of Cape mole-rats are known from the middle Pleistocene of Elandsfontein in the Western Cape. Fossils referable to the genus Georychus, but not to the living species, have been identified from the lower Pleistocene at Swartkrans.[2]
Like other mole-rats, Cape mole-rats rarely travel above ground, and spend most of their lives within excavated burrow systems. Their burrows typically range from 50 to 130 metres (160 to 430 ft) in length, with tunnels about 10 centimetres (3.9 in) wide. Like other mole rat species, but unlike most other species of animals popularly called moles, they dig with their incisors; this enables them to dig through earth much harder than most moles can deal with. Their lips are adapted to close laterally behind the incisors when they gape; this prevents earth from entering the mouth when they dig. The only part the feet play in digging, is in moving the loosened earth to the rear. They are herbivorous, feeding on the bulbs, corms and tubers of plants such as Star-of-Bethlehem, Cape tulips, and wood-sorrels, among others. They obtain this food by digging foraging tunnels to reach plant roots; these tunnels are narrower than their main tunnels and may be as little as 0.5 to 2.5 centimetres (0.20 to 0.98 in) below the surface. Food may also be taken to deeper storage chambers to store up for hard times, or when a female is raising young. They have no need to drink, being able to obtain all the water they need from their diet.[2]
In order to feed on bulbs, Cape mole-rats hold the food item in their fore-paws, chew away the base, and then peel away the husk with their teeth, moving from the tip to the base, in the manner that humans peel bananas. They have an enlarged caecum, and, like rabbits, are coprophagic, passing food through their digestive tract twice.[2]
In addition to storage chambers, the centre of the tunnel system includes a nest, and a separate latrine chamber. The tunnels are entirely closed off from the surface, although their presence may be evident from dome-shaped mounds of excavated material similar to mole hills. As a result, there is little circulation of air within the tunnels, which are therefore hypoxic and humid, but are protected from extremes of weather.[4] The mole rats occasionally travel above ground to forage for surface vegetation, and to disperse to found new burrow systems.[2]
Despite spending almost their entire lives underground, and having very poor eyesight, Cape mole-rats exhibit distinct diurnal rhythms in time with the hours of daylight on the surface, and are primarily nocturnal.[5] Unlike some other species of mole-rat, they are solitary animals, and, except when a female is raising young, only one individual inhabits each burrow system. They are highly aggressive towards other members of their own species outside the breeding season. When encountering a rival, they adopt a rigid posture with the head thrown back and jaws open, chattering their teeth and occasionally making short leaps in the direction of their opponent. Because burrow systems can approach within 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) of each other, burrowing animals warn away rivals using sex-specific seismic signals.[2]
Cape mole-rats become alarmed if they sense a breach in their tunnel system, moving cautiously towards the break, and making characteristic 'pumping' motions with their hindquarters, of unknown significance. Predators that may enter the tunnel system to feed on Cape mole-rats include mole snakes and Cape cobras. They are particularly vulnerable while travelling above ground, where they may also fall victim to jackals, mongooses, owls and grey herons.[2]
During the summer mating season, both sexes drum on the sides of their tunnels with their hind feet, using a different signal than when warning off potential intruders at other times of the year. The drumming is loud enough to be heard above ground at a distance of up to 10 metres (33 ft) away. Once the male finds a partner, courtship and mating are brief, and interspersed with bouts of grooming.[6]
Gestation lasts 44 to 48 days, and a litter of three to ten young are born between August and December. The young are born hairless and blind, weighing only 5 to 12 grams (0.18 to 0.42 oz), and 3 to 4 centimetres (1.2 to 1.6 in) in length. The fur begins to grow on day seven, and the eyes open on day nine. The young grow rapidly, and begin to take solid food around day seventeen, being fully weaned at four weeks of age. By five weeks, siblings begin to show aggression towards one another, and they leave to establish their own burrows at around seven weeks.[7]
Cape mole-rats reach sexual maturity at eighteen months of age, and live up to five years.[2]
The Cape mole-rat (Georychus capensis) is a species of mole-rat endemic to South Africa. It is the only extant species currently described as belonging to the genus Georychus.
