Our mystery animal is the starnose mole. The scientific name of this animal is Condylura cristata.

The starnose mole is a most unusual looking animal. It hunts for food by touching the soil – a bit like a chicken might peck the soil…but faster! It will touch around 10 different spots in a single second with its sensitive star-like structure. With each touch, over a hundred thousand nerve fibres (five times the number of fibres in a human hand) send information to its brain to work out if it has touched something worth eating.

The adult’s star-nose measures about 1 centimetre across, slightly smaller than an average adult human fingertip.

Unfortunately you won’t spot the starnose mole in Australia as they are only found in the northern parts of North America.