A RARE white mole has been unearthed near Galashiels.

Professional mole catcher Shaun Alexander caught the creature on the Bowland Estate during his rounds on Saturday.

Despite more than three decades of catching moles all over the Borders, Mr Alexander from West Linton has never caught nor seen a white specimen before.

He told the Border Telegraph: "I've been a professional mole catcher for the last three years, but have been catching them for over 35 years, and this is certainly the first pure white mole I've caught.

"I have seen lots of pictures of moles that are many shades of cream and brown or even orange but pure white moles are rarer than rocking horse droppings, as they say."

Despite its rarity this latest find on the Bowland Estate isn't the only pure white mole to have been caught recently in the Scottish Borders.

The British Traditional Molecatchers Association set up its own record of unusual finds almost a decade ago.

And amongst the dozens of albino moles to have been found over the past six or seven years across the UK are two in the Borders by Jack Melrose.

The Border Telegraph also featured Selkirk mole catcher Rob Pringle in 2014 after he unearthed a golden-patch mole at Glenmayne, also near Galashiels.

At the time, Rob told us: “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing when I went to check the traps.

“My father was a mole catcher as well and I would have known if he’d ever caught any."

Moles have been regarded as a pest by farmers and gardeners since Roman times.

Their burrowing and earth hills are not only unsightly but also create unstable ground.

Earliest records of molecatching show that clay pots filled with water were buried into burrows and tunnels to act as a lethal trap.

Over the centuries molecatchers would travel from farm to farm to earn food, lodgings and a small fee for each mole they caught.

For a day or two they would set wooden traps all over the affected land.

And throughout the Borders lines of the mammals could be seen hanging from wire fences - not to discourage other moles but to act as an invoice for how much money they were owed by the farmer.

Pelts from the creatures were also sold on to fur traders.