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This week we're going to learn about animals with TENTACLES ON THEIR FACES oh my gosh\n\nThanks to Llewelly for the topic suggestion!\n\nDon't forget to come see me on the panel How to Start Your Own Indie Podcast at DragonCon 2018, at 4pm on Sunday, September 2, 2018 in the Hilton Galleria 6.\n\nA tentacled snake:\n\n\n\nA star-nosed mole. Hello, nose star!\n\n\n\nA caecilian, with its tiny tentacle circled:\n\n\n\nA squidworm:\n\n\n\nShow transcript:\n\nWelcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I\u2019m your host, Kate Shaw.\n\nI\u2019m back from Paris this week and definitely jet-lagged, but this episode should wake everyone up. It\u2019s about animals with TENTACLES ON THEIR FACES\n\nA big thanks to Llewelly who sent me an article about the tentacled snake, which turned into this episode. I love it when people send me links to articles or suggestions for topics. I have a bunch of suggestions I haven\u2019t gotten to yet, but I promise I will as soon as possible. I\u2019m like a dog in a park full of squirrels. There are so many exciting animals to chase, it\u2019s hard to know which one to follow.\n\nThat reminds me. If you go to the strangeanimalspodcast.com website, there\u2019s a page with a list of animals that I\u2019ve covered in various episodes. If you don\u2019t see your favorite animal on that list, feel free to email me with your suggestion!\n\nAlso, if you\u2019re listening to this episode the week it comes out, this coming weekend I\u2019ll be at DragonCon in Atlanta. If you\u2019re going to be there too, I\u2019m on a panel about how to start your own podcast, part of the podcasting track. It\u2019ll be at 4pm on Sunday in the Hilton Galleria 6.\n\nNow, on to the tentacles.\n\nWe\u2019ll start with the tentacled snake, which lives in parts of southeast Asia. It lives in both fresh and ocean water and doesn\u2019t come on land very often. When it does, it has trouble getting around since it\u2019s adapted for swimming. It grows up to three feet long, or about 90 cm, and is brown or gray, sometimes with stripes, sometimes with blotches. Its body and head are flattened and its scales are rough. Basically it looks a lot like an old stick with lichen on it. If something disturbs it, it holds its body completely rigid even if it\u2019s lifted out of the water, which makes it look even more like a stick.\n\nIts nose is squared-off with nostrils at the top so it can more easily grab breaths at the water\u2019s surface. And it has a pair of short tentacles at the corners of its snout that it uses to help it sense the fish and frogs it eats. It has weak venom, but its fangs are in the back of its mouth and not dangerous to humans.\n\nIt likes slow-moving water, murky water, or water with a lot of vegetation in it because it doesn\u2019t rely on its eyes to sense fish, although it has good eyesight. The tentacles are finely attuned to movement in the water and the snake can sense when a fish is approaching even if it can\u2019t see the fish.\n\nThe tentacled snake is an ambush predator. It uses its tail to anchor itself in the water, and holds its body in a J shape, either head down or head up. When a fish swims nearby, the snake moves the looped section of its body extremely quickly without moving its head, which creates a pressure wave in the water that makes the fish think there\u2019s a predator approaching. The fish doubles back and tries to flee, but in the wrong direction\u2014basically right into the snake\u2019s face.\n\nAnother animal with tentacles on its face is the star-nosed mole. It\u2019s a mammal that lives in parts of northeastern North America, especially in marshy areas. Like other moles, it\u2019s not very big, only about six inches long, or 15 cm. Its fur is dense and velvety, it has tiny eyes and ears that are mostly hidden under its fur, and its tail is short. It spends a lot of time in the water but it also digs shallow tunnels. It eats worms, insects, mollusks, and small animals of various kinds, including frogs.\n\nThe star-nosed mole has eyes, but they\u2019re tiny and don\u2019t function very well. Instead,