With its short legs and short tail, the Meadow Vole looks part hamster and part mouse. Often called field mice, Meadow Voles tunnel under the grass in hayfields, meadows, and grassy strips along roads. They are preyed upon by many predators but keep their numbers up by having litters every month of the year. The Meadow Vole (Microtus pennsylvanicus), sometimes called the Field Mouse or Meadow Mouse, is a small North American vole found across Canada, Alaska and the northern United States.
Ten Facts about Meadow Vole
- On average, they are 16 cm in length and weigh about 50 grams.
- Meadow voles range throughout Northern and Eastern United States, across Canada, from Newfoundland and Labrador to British Columbia, including the Yukon Territory and Alaska.
- The Meadow Vole is an herbivore, feeding mainly on the grasses that are abundant in its environment.
- On average, a meadow vole living in its natural environment will live 154 days, less than one year.
- Common predators to the meadow vole are the red fox, Vulpes vulpes; the bobcat, Lynx rufus; and the coyote, Canis latrans.
- Habitat: Fields, meadows, marshes, and grassy areas along highways.
- Meadow Voles are most active at night during the Summer, and during the day if its Winter. They are less active when there's a full moon.
- The meadow vole can reproduce multiple times each year. Average females have between one and five litters in a year, producing about five pups in each litter.
- While Meadow Voles use mostly runways, they also build systems of burrows. They are good diggers, as well as good swimmers.
- Gestation is usually 45 days.
