Have you ever seen a vole? Maybe you thought it was a mouse?
I hope that these 7 vole facts will teach you something new about these little mammals. Honestly though, do you even know what this common mammal found throughout the Rocky Mountains and world is?
I have heard a saying that you should strive to learn something new every day. I think that is a good idea and I try to follow it. If we aren’t careful it is easy for a day or week to slip by without learning anything new. Well, today I want to teach you something new about voles. Here are 7 fun vole facts that I think you’ll enjoy (and hopefully you’ll learn something new!).
Top photo via Flickr.
7 Vole Facts
First off it is important to know what a vole is. A vole is a small mammal that is a rodent, a relative of a mouse. You can read this old post all about the differences between a vole, a mole, and a mouse here.
Voles are herbivores. This means that they only eat vegetation. A vole’s favorite foods are roots and bulbs. This particular diet of theirs means that many gardeners don’t like them because they eat and kill the roots of the plants that they are growing.
There are over 150 species of voles throughout the world, 6 of which are common in the Rocky Mountains. The Rocky Mountain species include the Southern Red-backed vole, Heather vole, Long-tailed vole, Monatane vole, Meadow vole, and the Water vole.
This is an eastern water vole.
All of these different species of voles are possible because they have evolved to live in slightly different habitats. A Water vole is a good swimmer and lives near water. A Meadow vole lives in open meadows at lower elevations.
The Meadow vole can compete with rabbits when it comes to how prolific it is at reproduction. This species is ready to breed only 3-4 weeks after it is born! This is due to the fact that there are a lot of predators that eat them, so it has evolved to reproduce quickly to give it a greater chance of survival.
Long-tailed voles are found only in the mountains of western North America. This tiny mammal plays an important part in the Rocky Mountain food web (the interconnections between animals in the Rockies, showing what they eat). The Long-tailed voles are a staple food source for many predator species of mammals, birds, and reptiles.
The last cool fact that I want to share with you is that many voles in the Rocky Mountains don’t hibernate or migrate during the winter. They are active, tunneling along the ground under the snow searching for food to eat.