I had never heard of a vole until a few days ago when my friend Tammy exclaimed, "Maybe it was a vole!" My other friend Carrie and I looked at her incredulously as Carrie remarked, "And now you're just making up creatures." But, sure enough, voles are real. Why hasn't anyone taught me about voles before? Apparently they're everywhere.
According to that bastion of unfallible knowledge, Wikipedia, the meadow vole (microtus pennsylvanicus) is a small rodent that creates pathways in soft brush or burrows just beneath the ground's surface. They are commonly called field mice, although they are not mice. They have more fur, have smaller ears, and are the only rodent whose molars never stop growing throughout their lifetime. (However, it being that it is rare for them to live over one year, I don't see what's so special about their molars never reaching maturity).
The meadow vole is not the only species of vole out there; several different types of voles exist throughout the world. Although the meadow vole is not indiginous to Florida, the Florida salt marsh vole has its home there and is considered an endangered species. So, JP, if you ever rescue a Florida salt marsh vole, don't throw it out a window.
1 comment:
I'm not near any salt marsh, that's further south, but I can probably get you some shrews and beach mice. Not to mention all the lizards you could possibly want. What about a gopher tortoise. They are pretty cool. Like your vole, they also dig burrows. Ok, enough biology today
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