This 'blind mole' can 'see' the magnetic field with its own eyes

German scientists have discovered that a species of underground mole in Zambia's forests, although almost blind, can still "see" the magnetic field with its own eyes.

The study, published in the latest issue of the research journal "Journal of the Royal Society Interface", was conducted by Dr. K. R. Casper of the University of Duisburg Essen, Germany, and his colleagues.

So far we have learned about many birds that have a tremendous ability to sense the earth's magnetic field, which they use during migration thousands of miles and easily reach their destination.

Recent research has also shown that dogs also feel the magnetic field and take guidance from it. Experts have the same idea about these moles called "Ansell's mole-rat" but it has not been confirmed yet.

These small button-like moles make long tunnels under the ground and live in colonies.

There are about ten moles in a colony while many such colonies are connected to each other through "communication tunnels" through which the moles of one colony come and go in other colonies.

But the important thing is that in every colony, the moles always make their habitat on the south-eastern side of the tunnels.

Experts wondered how a mole that could tell with its eyes only the difference between light and darkness, that is, almost blind, would always choose the southeast direction, determining the exact direction in the underground darkness. 

For this reason, scientists believed that these moles, like birds, have a natural ability to be guided by the earth's magnetic field. But where is this ability in their body? Nothing was known about it. Although some experts had suspicions in the eyes of these moles, but they did not have any concrete evidence for this.

German scientists resorted to a "ruthless" approach to solving the riddle: they carefully removed the eyes of the moles in the laboratory. Even after losing their eyesight, the moles' routine did not change and they continued to dig tunnels, tease each other and have children.

When experts became convinced that the moles were living a normal life even after losing their eyes, they created a space similar to the natural environment inside the laboratory, around which an artificial magnetic field was created. Which these experts could control and even change its direction.

In this place, these moles could dig tunnels for themselves and live underground and make their own burrows. Along with the blind moles, the moles that had eyes and were not removed were also left here.

Experts observed that the mice with healthy eyes reacted to the change in the artificial magnetic field and when they dug their burrows, they were in the southeast according to the changed direction of the artificial magnetic field.

In contrast, mice without eyes had no effect on or change the magnetic field; And they dug their bills here and there. This proved that in the absence of eyes, these moles were not even able to perceive and receive guidance from the magnetic field.

At the end of the study, experts suggested that the mole's eyes be examined with powerful electron microscopes and advanced spectroscopy techniques to determine the magnetic field sensing in small eyes as small as 2 mm.