Meadow Vole - Sierra Club BC
Skip to content
Meadow Vole

CAN BE FOUND IN:

Meadow Vole

Microtus pennsylvanicus 

Appearance

Meadow voles are often called field mice, but they actually have shorter tails and ears than mice. These voles are brown with silver-grey bellies. 

Range & Habitat

Meadow voles are found in grassy meadows, mountaintops and marshes throughout Canada (except Newfoundland) and the Northern US (from Wyoming and Missouri to South Carolina). 

Reciprocal Relationships

Meadow voles are primary consumers in meadow, mountain, and marsh ecosystems. They are nocturnal herbivores who eat their weight’s worth of flowers, leaves and seeds of grasses, plantain and clover, as well as tubers each day. You can find traces of meadow voles by the ‘grass clippings’ that they leave behind when they chop up plant stalks little by little while trying to reach their favourite part of the plant: the seed heads. 

When in trouble, meadow voles stomp their hind feet and cry out to warn their fellow voles of the danger. Their main threat is predation by other species including housecats, foxes, coyotes, snakes, hawks and owls. These voles live alongside humans, however, voles can be considered detrimental to cropland and gardens.  

status

COSEWIC: Not Reported 
CDC: Yellow 

more information

If you belong to a First Nation with a story or piece of information not represented here and you would like to share more about this species, please email us at education@sierraclub.bc.ca

photo credit

Canva

Related Species

Filter by Taxonomy

Filter by EcoProvince

American Kestrel

American Kestrel

The American kestrel is the smallest falcon in North America and weighs only 3 or 4 ounces.

American White Pelican

American White Pelican

American white pelicans are some of the largest birds in North America. They hunt together, driving small schools of fish into each other’s bill pouches.

Arctic tern

Arctic tern

Arctic terns are unique birds with gifts of persistence and resourcefulness. These birds must fly great distances, and in doing so they have a diet with a variety of sea life.

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

Bald eagles are found all over B.C. and the U.S. The largest populations in North America live in B.C. and Alaska.

Banana Slug

Banana Slug

Banana slugs are important decomposers in our coastal rainforest. They are nocturnal feeders, eating decaying animals, mushrooms, and plants.

Beaver

Beaver

The beaver possesses many gifts! They are adept at swimming, building, and tree chomping.

Bighorn Sheep

Bighorn Sheep

The bighorn sheep are important primary consumers in the food chain. They are vegetarians, eating grasses, bushes and leaves.

Black and White Warbler

Black and White Warbler

These iconic Canadian birds are also called the ‘black and white creeper’ because they creep along tree trunks looking for tasty insects.

Black Bear

Black Bear

Black bears and Pacific salmon play an important part in maintaining our forest ecosystems.

Bocaccio Rockfish

Bocaccio Rockfish

Bocaccio rockfish are important consumers. These fish eat smaller fish such as anchovies, mackerel, squid and other rockfish.

Bonaparte's Gull

Bonaparte's Gull

These gulls nest in large numbers and produce two to three eggs at a time. These gulls are gifted with agility.

Boreal Chickadee

Boreal Chickadee

Boreal chickadees are an important indicator species of boreal ecosystems!