March 1996 
The National Geographic

EarthAlmanac section

Down the burrow holes, a snoopy MOLE goes

High explosives and wildlife don't mix. So before scientists at Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory test conventional weapons at a 7,000-acre site in California, they talk to the lab's wildlife
biologist, Jim Woollett.

Beneath the earth lie hundreds of burrows seasonally occupied by three vulnerable species: burrowing
owls, San Joaquin kit foxes, and American badgers. To avoid harming or disrupting them, Woollett
and engineer John Christensen have invented a Miniature Optical Lair Explorer   a MOLE.  With a
tiny video camera and some parts from a toy store, the battery powered, five-inch-long vehicle is sent
by an operator with a control cable down a burrow hole to see if it is occupied.  "If it is, I tell the
weapons personnel to pull back and move the tests away from that burrow," says Woollett.  Still
experimenting last summer, he took the MOLE to Idaho habitat where burrowing owls are plentiful.  

Copyright The National Geographic 1996