A Population Study of the Prairie Vole (Microtus ochrogaster) in Northeastern KansasMartin, Edwin Perry
Science
A Population Study of the Prairie Vole (Microtus ochrogaster) in Northeastern Kansas
Martin, Edwin Perry
Microtus
Winter foods consisted of stored hay and fruits and of underground plant
parts. _Bromus inermis_ made up nearly all of the hay and was stored in
lengths of up to ten inches in underground chambers specially
constructed for storage. Underground parts of plants were reached by
tunnelling and were an especially important part of the voles' diet in
January and February. The fruit of _Solanum carolinense_ was eaten
throughout the winter and one underground chamber, opened in February,
1952, was packed full of these seemingly unsavory fruits. Fisher
(1945:436), in Missouri, found this fruit to be an important part of the
winter diet of voles. An occasional pod of the honey locust tree was
found partly eaten in a runway. Fitch (1953, _in litt._) often observed
girdling of honey locust and crab apple (_Pyrus ioensis_) root crowns on
the Reservation but I saw no evidence of bark eating, perhaps because my
study plots were mostly grassland. On two occasions when two voles were
in the same trap one of them was eaten. In both traps, all of the bait
had been eaten and the captured voles probably were approaching
starvation. Because the trapping procedure offered abundant opportunity
for cannibalism, the low frequency of its occurrence suggested that it
was not an important factor in satisfying food requirements under normal
conditions.
Runways and Nests
Perhaps the most characteristic sign of the presence of _Microtus
ochrogaster_ were their surface runways and underground tunnels. Only
rarely was a vole observed to expose itself to full view. When a trapped
vole was released it immediately dove out of sight into a runway. Once
in a runway, the vole showed no further evidence of alarm and was
usually in no hurry to get away. The runways seemed to provide a sense
of security and the voles were familiar with their range only through
runway travel. The urge to seek a runway immediately when exposed has
obvious survival value.
Surface runways were usually under a mat of debris. In areas where
debris was scanty or lacking, runways were usually absent. Jameson
(1947:136) reported that in alfalfa and clover fields the voles did not
make runways as they did in grassland, even in fields where trapping
records showed voles to be abundant. Typical surface runways are
approximately 50 mm. wide, only slightly cut into the ground and bare of
vegetation while in use. Usually they could be distinguished from the
runways of the pine vole, which were cut more deeply into the ground,
and those of the cotton rat which were wider and not so well cleared of
vegetation. Some runways ended in surface chambers and some of these
were lined with grass. Their size varied from a diameter of 90 mm. to
250 mm. and they seemed to be used primarily for resting places.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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