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The bank vole lives for up to two years in the wild. [6] In captivity this can increase to over 42 months, with the older voles tending to spend most time resting, less physically agile, though still capable of having a spin on the wheel. Male bank voles exhibit inbreeding avoidance behavior, finding nonsibling females more attractive than ...
Voles outwardly resemble several other small animals. Moles, gophers, mice, rats and even shrews have similar characteristics and behavioral tendencies. Voles thrive on small plants yet, like shrews, they will eat dead animals and, like mice and rats, they can live on almost any nut or fruit. In addition, voles target plants more than most ...
The southern red-backed vole or Gapper's red-backed vole (Clethrionomys gapperi) is a small slender vole found in Canada and the northern United States.It is closely related to the western red-backed vole (Clethrionomys californius), which lives to the south and west of its range and which is less red with a less sharply bicolored tail.
Northern red-backed voles live in a variety of northern forest and shrubland habitats. [2] [4] They occur in every major forest type in central Alaska. [5]Plant species commonly found in areas occupied by northern red-backed voles include black spruce (Picea mariana), white spruce (Picea glauca), quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides), paper birch (Betula papyrifera), alder (Alnus spp.), willow ...
Voles are seldom seen outside these runways, which enable a faster and safer locomotion and easier orientation. The climbing ability of the common vole is very poor. Underground nests are dug 30–40 cm (12–16 in) deep into the ground and are used for food storage, offspring raising, and as a place for rest and sleep.
The most convenient distinguishing feature of the Arvicolinae is the nature of their molar teeth, which have prismatic cusps in the shape of alternating triangles. These molars are an adaptation to a herbivorous diet in which the major food plants include a large proportion of abrasive materials such as phytoliths; the teeth get worn down by abrasion throughout the adult life of the animal and ...
In Ireland, the accidental introduction of the bank vole in the 1950s led to a major shift in the barn owl's diet: where their ranges overlap, the vole is now by far the largest prey item. [24] Locally superabundant rodent species in the weight class of several grams per individual usually make up the single largest proportion of prey. [25]
Townsend's vole (Microtus townsendii) is a species of rodent in the family Cricetidae, the sister species of M. canicaudus. [3] It is found in temperate grasslands of British Columbia in Canada and in the states of Washington and Oregon in the United States. [1] [4] Greek root words for "small ear" are the source for the genus name Microtus. [4]