Field vole
The field vole (Microtus agrestis) is one of Britain's most abundant mammals, but it is hard to see because it hides in long grass. Many predators feed on it.[1]
Description
The field vole is grey-brown, without the chestnut tones of the bank vole. Its tail is about half the length of its body, and its hairy ears are hidden in its fur. The head and body measure 9 to 11 cm, the tail 2 to 5 cm, and adults weigh 20 to 40 g. Its signs include runways and tunnels at the base of grass tussocks, and grass nests about 10 cm across.[1]
Habitat and behaviour
Field voles live in long, ungrazed grass, along the edges of damp marshes and in young plantations. In Scotland they are found up to 1,300 m above sea level. They eat mainly grass roots and shoots and are active all year, by day and night. They breed from March or April to September or October, with up to seven litters a season. Numbers rise and fall in a cycle of about four years.[2] Myxomatosis in the 1950s helped field voles, and in turn the weasels that hunt them, and vole plagues were reported in that decade.[3]
History and range
Field voles were probably much scarcer in the woodlands of the early Holocene than they are now, and clearing woodland helped them.[4] They are plentiful in prehistoric archaeological faunas, often together with water voles.[5] They are absent from Ireland, the Isle of Man, Orkney, Shetland, Lewis, Barra and the Channel Islands. Some Highland and island populations have an extra loop on the first upper molar tooth.[6] Upland forestry gives them ideal habitat for a time, until the trees close over.[3]
Numbers
Couzens and colleagues estimate about 75 million field voles at the end of the breeding season.[2] Yalden and Barrett describe it as apparently the only wild mammal in Britain that outnumbers the human population.[3]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Couzens, Dominic; Swash, Andy; Still, Robert; Dunn, Jon (2021). Britain's Mammals: A Field Guide to the Mammals of Great Britain and Ireland (Updated ed.). Princeton University Press. p. 72. ISBN 9780691224862.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Couzens, Dominic; Swash, Andy; Still, Robert; Dunn, Jon (2021). Britain's Mammals: A Field Guide to the Mammals of Great Britain and Ireland (Updated ed.). Princeton University Press. p. 73. ISBN 9780691224862.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Yalden, Derek; Barrett, Priscilla (2010). The History of British Mammals. T & AD Poyser. ch. 9. ISBN 9781408128718.
- ↑ Yalden, Derek; Barrett, Priscilla (2010). The History of British Mammals. T & AD Poyser. ch. 3. ISBN 9781408128718.
- ↑ Yalden, Derek; Barrett, Priscilla (2010). The History of British Mammals. T & AD Poyser. ch. 4. ISBN 9781408128718.
- ↑ Yalden, Derek; Barrett, Priscilla (2010). The History of British Mammals. T & AD Poyser. ch. 8. ISBN 9781408128718.