There are a large variety of voles, about 70 species. In size they range from 3 ½ to 7 inches long. They have rounded bodies with gray or brown coats, blunt muzzles, small ears, and short tails. (Mice have longer tails.) Many species are considered pests. Several species live in artic habitats and are referred to as artic voles.
Voles can produce 3 to 12 litters per year, though the average is 3 to 5. Litter sizes average 3 to 6 babies, though they can have up to 11. Voles live in small colonies of a few to 300 individuals.
Some voles are strictly herbivores, others are omnivores. Voles eat grasses, bark, leaves, seeds, nuts, berries, fungi, roots, bulbs, tubers, snails, and insects.
They create runways in grasses and vegetation (or snow in wintery climates) on the surface of the ground and dig underground burrows. These tunnels give them protection from predators and from the weather.
The meadow vole is one of the most common. The salt marsh vole is bigger than the meadow vole. Red-backed voles spend much of their time in shrubs and bushes. The water vole, which lives in Europe and Western Asia, is a large, semi-aquatic vole, looks a bit like a muskrat. The bank vole is the smallest vole species in Britain and has short hamster-like noses.
Vole predators include hawks, owls, weasels, cats, foxes, coyotes, minks, badgers, skunks, bobcats, and snakes. And, of course, they are killed by man, especially when they cause problems in agricultural areas.
Fun Vole Facts
- In Florida the salt marsh vole lives in periodically flooded high salt marsh. It is believed to survive high tides and storm flooding by climbing vegetation and swimming.
- In North America voles are known as field mice or meadow mice.
- Voles can have large population fluctuations from 14 to 500 voles per acre!
- The red-backed vole has a bright reddish stripe from its forehead to rump.
- Voles are mostly nocturnal, although some are out more in the daytime in the winter.
- Prairie voles are monogamous.
References
Alaska Department of Fish and Game
http://www.adfg.state.ak.us/pubs/notebook/smgame/voles.php
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/sci/A0851115.html
Mammals of Indiana, Butler University
http://www.butler.edu/indiana_mammals/Prarie%20Vole.htm
Voles.com
http://www.voles.com/index.html
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