The fleshy appendages that ring the snout of the star-nosed mole, shown here, make it one strange-looking creature. But when it comes to eating, those 22 tentacles help the mole detect and devour food faster than the human eye can follow – in a fraction of a second. Researchers say the speedy feeding allows the mole to prey on small insect larvae that would otherwise be too energetically costly to eat. The creature lives and forages under the cover of marshes and wetlands along the east coast of North America.