Meadow Vole
| Meadow vole | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Rodentia |
| Family: | Cricetidae |
| Genus: | Microtus |
| Subgenus: | Mynomes |
| Species: | M. pennsylvanicus |
| Binomial name | |
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Microtus pennsylvanicus (Ord, 1815) |
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The meadow vole (Microtus pennsylvanicus), sometimes called the field mouse or meadow mouse, is a North American vole found across Canada, Alaska and the northern United States. Its range extends farther south along the Atlantic coast. One subspecies, the Florida salt marsh vole (M. p. dukecampbelli), is found in Florida, and is classified as endangered. Previously it was also found in Chihuahua, Mexico, but has not been recorded since 1998.
The meadow vole is active year-round, usually at night. It also digs underground burrows, where it stores food for the winter and females give birth to their young. Although these animals tend to live close together, they are aggressive towards one another. This is particularly evident in males during the breeding season. They can cause damage to fruit trees, garden plants, and commercial grain crops.
The meadow vole has the widest distribution of any North American species of Microtus. It ranges from Labrador west to Alaska and south from Labrador and New Brunswick to South Carolina and extreme northeastern Georgia; east through Tennessee, Missouri, north-central Nebraska, the northern half of Wyoming, and central Washington to Alaska; south through Idaho into north-central Utah. It is excluded only from the extreme polar regions. A disjunct subset of its range occurs from central Colorado to northwestern New Mexico. The United States portion of the Souris River is alternately known as the Mouse River because of the large numbers of field mice that lived along its banks.
Meadow voles are most commonly found in grasslands, preferring moister areas, but are also found in wooded areas. In eastern Washington and northern Idaho, meadow voles are found in relative abundance in sedge (Carex spp.) fens, but not in adjacent cedar (Thuja spp.)-hemlock (Tsuga spp.), Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), or ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests. Meadow voles are also absent from fescue (Festuca spp.)-snowberry (Symphoricarpos spp.) associations. Moisture may be a major factor in habitat use; possibly the presence of free water is a deciding factor. In southeastern Montana, meadow voles were the second-most abundant small mammal (after deer mice, Peromyscus maniculatus) in riparian areas within big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata)-buffalo grass (Buchloe dactyloides) habitats. Meadow voles are listed as riparian-dependent vertebrates in the Snake River drainage of Wyoming. In a compilation of 11 studies on small mammals, meadow voles were reported in only three of 29 sites in subalpine forests of the central Rocky Mountains. Their range extensions were likely to be related to irrigation practices. They are now common in hayfields, pastures, and along ditches in the Rocky Mountain states.
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