Vietnamese Mole

The Vietnamese mole is a species of mole first identified in December 2008 in the foothills of the Tam Dao mountains in northern Vietnam. At the time of the formal description in 2012, only nine specimens had been collected, including three held at the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology that had not been previously identified as a new species (Wikipedia, general species account).

The mole lives in deciduous forest among limestone hills at about 200 to 300 m elevation and builds large molehills; its habits are thought to be similar to other talpine moles. It is a small, slender mole with a head and body length of 11 to 12 cm.