systems, even venturing into other coast mole tunnel systems in attempts to find a mating partner. Little is known about their gestation and nursing behavior. Females produce a single litter per year, and maternal care is limited. Coast mole offspring can become reproductively active within nine to ten months of birth. Adaptation to burrowing lifestyle Coast moles primarily use their noses for sensing their surroundings underground. Eimer's organ is a small, densely innervated sensory structure found in the nose of most talpid moles, including the coast mole, which seems to play a critical role in tactile discrimination and enables it to differentiate between prey items in an environment with little to no visual input. Moles and monotremes appear to have developed this as a convergent structure, using common components of mammalian skin to maximize tactile sensitivity. Air supply in coast mole tunnels may be short on oxygen, but enriched with carbon dioxide from respiration. One adaptation to these environmental challenges is an increased blood volume for oxygen storage. Another is a modified hemoglobin, found in the coast mole and the eastern mole, that allows for heightened Cl- ion binding activity that is not affected by the relatively cold temperatures of mole tunnels. Conservation The species has been classified as Least Concern by the IUCN, since it appears to be common in a wide variety of habitats throughout its range. References Scapanus Mammals of North America Mammals described in 1896