{"id":17690,"date":"2023-12-03T10:15:06","date_gmt":"2023-12-03T04:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=17690"},"modified":"2025-04-05T05:58:31","modified_gmt":"2025-04-05T00:28:31","slug":"de-wintons-golden-mole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/de-wintons-golden-mole\/","title":{"rendered":"What is De Winton\u2019s Golden Mole?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>About De Winton\u2019s Golden Mole<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It is an\u00a0elusive blind mole that &#8220;swims&#8221; through sand,\u00a0lives in inaccessible burrows, and has a\u00a0shimmering, iridescent coat.<\/li>\n<li>Scientific Name:\u00a0<i>Cryptochloris wintoni<\/i><\/li>\n<li>Distribution:\n<ul>\n<li>It is\u00a0endemic to South Africa.<\/li>\n<li>It has only\u00a0ever been recorded in one location-Port Nolloth,\u00a0on\u00a0South Africa&#8217;s northwest coast-where it was\u00a0last sighted in 1937.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Habitat: Its natural habitats are\u00a0subtropical dry shrubland, Mediterranean-type\u00a0shrubby vegetation, and sandy shores.<\/li>\n<li>Features:\n<ul>\n<li>The\u00a0upper parts have short, dense fur that is\u00a0slate-grey\u00a0with a yellowish tinge.<\/li>\n<li>Individual hairs have grey bases, whitish shafts, and fawn tips.<\/li>\n<li>The\u00a0face, cheeks, and lips\u00a0have a more\u00a0intense yellowish tinge.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The\u00a0underparts are rather paler than the upper parts, with individual hairs having white tips.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) now\u00a0rates this species as\u00a0&#8220;critically endangered&#8221;. It is currently the only golden mole species with that classification.<\/li>\n<li>It is\u00a0among the 25 \u201cmost wanted lost\u201d species that are the\u00a0focus of Global Wildlife Conservation&#8217;s \u201cSearch for Lost Species\u201d initiative.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1) What are Moles?<\/h3>\n<p>Moles are small, burrowing mammals. Their eyes are poorly developed, but what they lack in sight, they make up for in their sense of touch. All moles have very sensitive snouts and long, clawed digits that they use to dig tunnels.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.livescience.com\/animals\/land-mammals\/shimmering-golden-mole-thought-extinct-photographed-and-filmed-over-80-years-after-last-sighting\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Shimmering golden mole thought extinct photographed and filmed over 80 years after last sighting<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>De Winton\u2019s Golden Mole is an elusive blind mole endemic to South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":17691,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17690","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}