A mole can dig a hole 300 feet deep in one night.
Can Moles Really Dig 300 Feet in One Night?
Let's clear something up: moles are absolutely phenomenal diggers, but the "300 feet deep" claim gets the impressive part wrong. A mole can indeed create a tunnel 300 feet long in a single night—but that's horizontal distance, not depth. Big difference.
Eastern moles have been documented excavating 160 to 300 feet of tunnel in one night, working at a blistering pace of 12-15 feet per hour. In loose soil, they can dig 12 inches per minute. That's roughly one foot of tunnel every 60 seconds, all night long.
So How Deep Do They Actually Go?
Most mole tunnels are surprisingly shallow. Their feeding tunnels run just 3 to 12 inches below the surface, where earthworms and grubs hang out. You know those raised ridges that appear overnight in your yard? That's a mole working the shallow zone.
Their deeper tunnels—the permanent ones used for nesting and food storage—typically max out around 3 to 6 feet underground. European moles might dig down to 4 feet, while Eastern moles usually stay within 12 to 18 inches for their main tunnel systems.
Why the Confusion?
The mixup between length and depth is understandable. When you hear "300 feet," it's natural to picture vertical distance. But moles are built for horizontal excavation, creating sprawling underground highway systems rather than deep vertical shafts.
Their front paws work like shovels, rotated outward with massive claws. They quite literally swim through soil, pushing dirt behind them as they hunt for their next meal. A single mole can eat 70-100% of its body weight in insects daily, which explains the manic tunneling pace.
Key differences in their tunnel network:
- Surface tunnels: 3-12 inches deep, used for feeding, often temporary
- Main tunnels: 6-12 inches deep, the primary transit system
- Deep tunnels: 3-6 feet down, permanent chambers for nesting and storage
- Total length: 160-300 feet of new tunnel possible per night
So while a mole won't be digging to the Earth's core anytime soon, their ability to excavate the length of a football field in one night—working alone, in the dark, through packed soil—remains genuinely mind-blowing.