The star-nosed mole has a rose-colored ring of fleshy, retractable tentacles surrounding its nose. Equally distinct is the scaly, fleshy tail that is covered with concentric rings and short, coarse hairs. The tail, nearly as long as the combined length of the head and body, is constricted at the base, tapered at the tip, and during the winter swollen in size, when it serves as a fat storage organ. Raptors, including screech, great horned, long-eared, barred, and barn owls, and red-tailed hawks; mammals such as striped skunks, weasels, minks, and foxes; and fish such as the northern pike prey on this mammal.

Seldom far from bodies of water. The star-nosed mole prefers wet soils in flood plains, swamps, meadows, and other openings near water. They eat aquatic invertebrates, earthworms and small fish. The range is from southeastern Manitoba to Labrador and Nova Scotia, south and east to southeastern Georgia. The star-nosed mole prefers damp to saturated soils, and often lives in the organic muck adjacent to water. Grassy meadows, marshes, swamps, and deciduous, coniferous, and mixed forests are some of the Adirondack plant communities in which it resided, to elevations of at least 1880 ft. Earthworms and aquatic insects are the primary foods, but it also eats snails, crayfish, small amphibians, and fish.