The desman is an aquatic relative of the mole, who uses its big hands as flippers rather than shovels. Like its terrestrial cousins, it is mostly blind and mostly uses its fantabulous snoot to find things.

The two species of desman are found in Russia and the Pyrenees respectively, filling the ecological niche of the platypus, which it superficially resembles. Unlike moles, they are social, and live in small groups of unrelated individuals. They prefer overgrown ponds for hunting, but tend to make their burrows in the banks of small streams. here are two Russian desmans, singing the song of their people: