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Microtus pinetorumwoodland vole

By David Copp

Ge­o­graphic Range

Wood­land voles, Mi­cro­tus pine­to­rum, are found from cen­tral Texas to Wis­con­sin, and east­ward to the At­lantic coast (ex­clud­ing Florida).

Habi­tat

Wood­land voles live in de­cid­u­ous forests in east­ern North Amer­ica. They are sur­face bur­row­ers, mov­ing through thick leaf­mold and loose soil.

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Wood­land voles have a com­bined head and body length be­tween 83 and 120 mm; the tail ranges from 15 to 40 mm in length. They weigh be­tween 14 and 37 g. There is al­most no sex­ual di­mor­phism within the species. The dor­sal re­gion varies from light to dark brown in color. The ven­tral sur­face is whitish or sil­very. Their bod­ies have be­come mod­i­fied for their par­tially sub­ter­ranean habi­tat by a re­duc­tion of the eyes, ex­ter­nal ears, and tail. Their fore­claws are also some­what en­larged for dig­ging.

  • Sexual Dimorphism
  • sexes alike
  • Range mass
    14 to 37 g
    0.49 to 1.30 oz
  • Range length
    83 to 120 mm
    3.27 to 4.72 in
  • Average basal metabolic rate
    0.305 W
    AnAge

Re­pro­duc­tion

Wood­land voles have a monog­a­mous mat­ing sys­tem.

Mat­ing gen­er­ally takes place from spring through fall with a peak in late spring to early sum­mer. Some wood­land voles may breed through­out the year if they live at low al­ti­tudes or ex­pe­ri­ence mild win­ters. After a ges­ta­tion pe­riod of about 21 days, fe­males give birth to a lit­ter of on av­er­age 3 to 7 in­di­vid­u­als, though lit­ters can range from 1 to 13 new­borns. Fe­males are polye­strous and may have sev­eral lit­ters in a year.

  • Breeding interval
    Woodland voles may breed several times a year.
  • Breeding season
    Mating generally takes place from spring through fall with a peak in late spring to early summer.
  • Range number of offspring
    1 to 13
  • Average number of offspring
    3 to 7
  • Average number of offspring
    3
    AnAge
  • Average gestation period
    21 days
    AnAge
  • Average weaning age
    17 days
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
    Sex: female
    98 days
    AnAge

Fe­males make nests in un­der­ground bur­rows, shal­low sur­face de­pres­sions, or under rocks and logs. Nests are glob­u­lar in shape and lined with shred­ded veg­e­ta­tion. They are ap­prox­i­mately 150 mm in di­am­e­ter. Young are help­less at birth and are weaned in about 17 days.

  • Parental Investment
  • altricial
  • pre-fertilization
    • protecting
      • female
  • pre-hatching/birth
    • provisioning
      • female
    • protecting
      • female
  • pre-weaning/fledging
    • provisioning
      • female
    • protecting
      • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

On av­er­age, wood­land voles live less than three months. The longest known lifes­pan in the wild is just over a year. (Kurta, 1995)

Be­hav­ior

Wood­land voles are sur­face bur­row­ers, nor­mally going no deeper than 100 mm below ground. They may also use the bur­rows of mice, moles, and large shrews. They are ac­tive at any time of the night or day. There seems to be strong so­cial­ity be­tween males and fe­males, and they are usu­ally bonded in monog­a­mous male-fe­male pairs. (Kurta, 1995)

  • Range territory size
    700 to 2800 m^2

Home Range

Wood­land voles spend their en­tire lives within the same home range of 700 to 2800 square me­ters. (Kurta, 1995)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

When sens­ing dan­ger or when sur­prised, wood­land voles make a high pitched noise that may serve as a warn­ing sig­nal. They have small eyes, so they prob­a­bly do not rely much on their vi­sion, and in­stead rely on their senses of touch, smell, and hear­ing to lo­cate one an­other and find food.

Food Habits

Wood­land voles are mostly her­biv­o­rous an­i­mals that feed on tu­bers, roots, seeds, leaves, and nuts. They may also eat berries and in­sects. In the fall, wood­land voles cache tu­bers and shoots in­side of a bur­row to eat in times of win­ter short­age. (Kurta, 1995)

  • Animal Foods
  • insects
  • Plant Foods
  • leaves
  • roots and tubers
  • seeds, grains, and nuts
  • fruit

Pre­da­tion

Wood­land voles have nu­mer­ous preda­tors, in­clud­ing hawks, owls, snakes, foxes, rac­coons, weasels, skunks, and opos­sums. (Kurta, 1995)

Ecosys­tem Roles

Wood­land voles may dis­perse seeds and they are an im­por­tant food source for nu­mer­ous preda­tors.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

There are no known di­rect pos­i­tive ef­fects of wood­land voles on hu­mans. Be­cause they are im­por­tant prey for many species, they help main­tain a thriv­ing ecosys­tem.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Dur­ing a se­vere win­ter M. pine­to­rum may cause dam­age to trees. In or­chards these an­i­mals may strip the bark from the roots and lower trunks of fruit trees.

  • Negative Impacts
  • crop pest

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Some pop­u­la­tions at the pe­riph­ery of the range of this species are con­sid­ered to be threat­ened or--as is the case in Michi­gan--of "spe­cial con­cern." How­ever, wood­land voles are com­mon through­out most of their range and some­times con­sid­ered agri­cul­tural pests.

Other Com­ments

Voles are often con­fused with moles due to sim­i­lar­ity of ap­pear­ance and be­hav­ior.

Con­trib­u­tors

Tanya Dewey (ed­i­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor, George Ham­mond (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web Staff.

Al­li­son Poor (ed­i­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

David Copp (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Glossary

Nearctic

living in the Nearctic biogeographic province, the northern part of the New World. This includes Greenland, the Canadian Arctic islands, and all of the North American as far south as the highlands of central Mexico.

World Map

acoustic

uses sound to communicate

altricial

young are born in a relatively underdeveloped state; they are unable to feed or care for themselves or locomote independently for a period of time after birth/hatching. In birds, naked and helpless after hatching.

bilateral symmetry

having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.

chemical

uses smells or other chemicals to communicate

diurnal
  1. active during the day, 2. lasting for one day.
endothermic

animals that use metabolically generated heat to regulate body temperature independently of ambient temperature. Endothermy is a synapomorphy of the Mammalia, although it may have arisen in a (now extinct) synapsid ancestor; the fossil record does not distinguish these possibilities. Convergent in birds.

forest

forest biomes are dominated by trees, otherwise forest biomes can vary widely in amount of precipitation and seasonality.

fossorial

Referring to a burrowing life-style or behavior, specialized for digging or burrowing.

granivore

an animal that mainly eats seeds

herbivore

An animal that eats mainly plants or parts of plants.

iteroparous

offspring are produced in more than one group (litters, clutches, etc.) and across multiple seasons (or other periods hospitable to reproduction). Iteroparous animals must, by definition, survive over multiple seasons (or periodic condition changes).

monogamous

Having one mate at a time.

motile

having the capacity to move from one place to another.

native range

the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.

nocturnal

active during the night

seasonal breeding

breeding is confined to a particular season

sedentary

remains in the same area

sexual

reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female

social

associates with others of its species; forms social groups.

stores or caches food

places a food item in a special place to be eaten later. Also called "hoarding"

tactile

uses touch to communicate

temperate

that region of the Earth between 23.5 degrees North and 60 degrees North (between the Tropic of Cancer and the Arctic Circle) and between 23.5 degrees South and 60 degrees South (between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Circle).

terrestrial

Living on the ground.

visual

uses sight to communicate

viviparous

reproduction in which fertilization and development take place within the female body and the developing embryo derives nourishment from the female.

Ref­er­ences

Walker, Ernest P. Mam­mals of the World [vol­ume III, ps. 647 - 1500]. Johns Hop­kins Press: Bal­ti­more, 1964.

I.M. Gro­mov & I.Y. Polyakov. Voles (Mi­croti­nae). Ed. Robert S. Hoff­man & Dou­glas Siegel-Causey. Smith­son­ian In­sti­tute Li­braries: Wash­ing­ton D.C., 1992.

Nowak, Ronald M. Walker's Mam­mals of the World [fifth edi­tion, vol­ume III]. Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­sity Press: Bal­ti­more, 1991.

"An­i­mal Life His­to­ries Data­base" (On-line).

Kurta, A. 1995. Mam­mals of the Great Lakes Re­gion. Ann Arbor: The Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan Press.

Ruff, S., D. Wil­son. 1999. The Smith­son­ian Book of North Amer­i­can Mam­mals. Wash­ing­ton [D.C.]: Smith­son­ian In­sti­tu­tion Press in as­so­ci­a­tion with the Amer­i­can So­ci­ety of Mam­mal­o­gists.

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Classification

Classification

  • Kingdom Animalia animals
  • Phylum Chordata chordates
  • Subphylum Vertebrata vertebrates
  • Class Mammalia mammals
  • Order Rodentia rodents
  • Family Cricetidae New World rats and mice, voles, hamsters, and relatives
  • Genus Microtus meadow voles
  • Species Microtus pinetorum woodland vole