9:30 p.m. - 2005-07-30
A tunneling rodent. *New Pics 12/31/07*
Gentle Readers,
Greetings on a hot, breezy summer day! What a good combination. It's always a bittersweet feeling as summer progresses; you see more and more spiders, small apples and walnuts appear on the ground, and you know the harvest will be here soon.
My "harvest" might be at one of the local Anthropologie stores, where the sweetest garments can be found!
Sorry, I was browsing their website tonight.
Anyway, tonight I'll tell the tale of a rodent that has been on my Most Wanted list for over a year: The vole!
It all started from my regular perusals of TS's North American Animal book, over at R's house. One of the illustrated pages featured only various species of voles, and the plumpness and stubby-tailed-ness of these creatures would invariably make me crack up! I long for a snug t-shirt emblazoned with that page!
But I searched for voles in vain. Until a few weeks ago! Both of my workplaces are within one city block of each other, which is convenient for parking, and working back to back shifts, etc. So I was walking from my free parking spot (yes!) and looking for small bunnies, etc, in the grass and bushes I passed by. All of a sudden I realized I was seeing strange tunnels in the grass, and then, a flash of movement in one of the tunnels! My heart leapt with joy, and I returned later, by cover of darkness, and observed VOLES IN ACTION!
In fact, tonight I went over there and observed the voles on one of my breaks at work. If you have a job where you can't watch voles on your lunch break, I'd suggest you quit immediately.
At the same time, it might not be best to be seen standing motionless, hunched over and staring at a bush in front of an institution where you are a teacher.
Look how cute voles are!
There are many kinds of voles, genus Microtus (also known as field mice) in America! These include the meadow vole, water vole, mountain, prairie, California, Oregon, and long-tailed. I'm sure you're getting an idea of their habitats from the names. Anyway, I'm not sure which voles I saw in downtown Minneapolis, I'm going to go with prairie vole, as their habitat is dry and grassy.
The voles I observed are mouse-sized or slightly larger; three to four inches long and a beautiful sable color. Their tunnels travel under a bush; apparently they tunnel under the ground as well. I wish I knew what they were doing under that bush! R and I wished for vole mini-cameras, so we could learn their secrets!
Voles don't hibernate and rarely store food. They can eat their own weight in food every day. In the summer voles eat mostly green plants, roots, tree bark, and will feed on insects, particularly bugs revealed by overturned sod. In the winter they eat plants under the snow, and will crawl up to gnaw on bark and seeds.
One of the things voles do for sure in their holes is make sweet love. A vole can have twelve litters a year! These rodents are monogamous.
Apparently voles stamp their feet when alarmed, like Thumper the rabbit. Their populations are cyclic and correspond with the populations of their predators. Vole-eaters include hawks, foxes, snakes, coyote, cats, skunks, raccoons, frogs (?), muskellunge (voles can swim!), shrews, herons and crows. It is good that so many animals depend on voles for food, as the rodents can number in the hundreds per acre, wreaking havoc on farms.
Maybe that's why I love voles; they f*ck stuff up while remaining cute and fuzzy!
In exchange for an Anthropologie gift card, I will show you the Domain of the Voles! Deal?
xo,
Wendell
