Despite that the bank vole is a pest rodent that destroys crops and causes harm forest areas, the animal becomes an integral part of the survival of forest predators. Bank voles never hibernate. Their activity in winter never decreases, they are able to exist for a long time under the cover of snow. This gives an advantage to predators in search of food in the cold winter.

The forest vole is a small mouse-like rodent that is a relative of the hamster.

Forest voles are an important link in the food chain, as they feed on a huge number of predators.

Description of the forest vole

The body length of the forest vole is 8-11 centimeters, the weight ranges from 17 to 35 grams. The length of the tail is 2.5-6 centimeters. The auricles of forest voles are practically invisible. Their eyes are small.

The color of the back is red-orange or rusty-orange. And the belly is white or gray. In winter, the hair becomes thicker and redder. hallmark forest voles from other species is that their molars have roots. They have 56 chromosomes.

Lifestyle of forest voles

The presence of a huge number of enemies in forest voles made these animals very secretive. During the day they hide in their burrows, under snags, between roots, under fallen leaves. And at night they come out in search of food. They live from 5 months to 1 year. They are active throughout the year.

Forest voles are difficult to spot, but there are many of these animals. Wood voles live in North America and Eurasia. In North America, they live in the Carolinas, Colorado, British Columbia, Labrador, Alaska.

They are distributed everywhere - in deciduous forests, in the taiga, in the fields. Even in a city park, you can hear the rustling of leaves and quiet fuss at night, these are forest voles. They also live in swampy areas of the forest-tundra. They can climb mountains to a height of up to 3 thousand meters.

Wood vole survival tools

Nature did not equip voles with sharp teeth, large claws, or muscular legs, but these animals have found a way to survive - they are extremely prolific.

Annually forest voles produce 3-4 offspring.

At one time, a vole brings about 11 babies. Already at 1.5 months, young voles are also ready for breeding.

One pair of these rodents reproduces up to 1000 times during its life, giving birth to an entire army. This is one of the most the best means survival.

The diet of forest voles

The diet of forest voles consists of plant foods. Seeds, tree buds, grass, berries, nuts, mushrooms are used. And in winter they eat bark and lichens. Forest voles crush rough food with large front teeth, which wear down rather quickly. However, the front teeth grow throughout life.

Voles, like other rodents, are voracious. They do not hibernate, so they have to stock up for the winter.

Each vole collects up to 500 grams of seeds.

They crawl into barns and visit grain fields, causing significant damage to agriculture.

But without forest voles, birds of prey would die of starvation. And birds destroy harmful insects. Therefore, by giving part of the harvest to the voles, people save a large share from insect pests.

Types of forest voles

In the genus of forest voles, 13 species are distinguished, among them bank voles, red-gray, red-backed voles and Tien Shan voles.

The bank vole or European forest vole does not exceed 11.5 centimeters in length, its weight is 17-35 centimeters. Her back is rusty-brown in color, and her belly is grayish. The tail is two-tone - dark above, and whitish below.

Red voles live in the mountain forests of Europe, in Siberia and Asia Minor. They settle in broad-leaved and mixed forests, preferring linden-oak plantations. They live alone, but in winter they can gather in groups. The bank vole is a numerous species.

The red-gray vole reaches a length of approximately 13.5 millimeters, and its weight ranges from 20 to 50 grams. The upper body of this vole is red-brown, the belly is light gray, and the sides are gray-blue. These rodents live in China, Japan, Finland, Mongolia, Sweden, Norway and Russia. They settle in birch and coniferous forests.

The top is rusty brown in various shades. The tail is two-tone, dark in the upper part, whitish in the lower part. The surface of the tail is covered with short hairs, arranged sparsely, so that skin scales are visible between them.

Skull with a juvenile appearance: a rounded brain capsule with a slight flattening in the fronto-parietal region and a shortened, drooping facial region and nasal bones narrowed in the middle. The cheekbones are low. Auditory drums are medium in size. In the mandibular bone, the angular section is not shortened. The roots of the molars are formed earlier than in other species. The chewing surfaces of the triangular loops and the loops themselves have pointed corners and a relatively thin enamel lining.

Biology

Lifestyle. Mass species of linden-oak biotopes deciduous forests. In the taiga zone, it prefers berry spruce forests and clearings adjacent to them. It avoids forests with densely closed stands and inhabits forest edges and light forests.

In the east of the range, preference is given to light secondary forests and edges of conifers, preferably overgrown with shrubs. The species is common in floodplain stands.

In the south it is found in island forests, shelterbelts. It leaves the forest belts to feed on the fields, but does not move further than 100 - 150 m from the edge.

In the European north, the bank vole often inhabits outbuildings and human housing. In winter, the animals are found in haystacks and stacks. In the Ural Mountains, together with other forest voles, it inhabits placers of stones.

The species lives in pairs or families. Activity is year-round, round-the-clock, polyphasic. In the light part of the day, up to 17 phases of activity are observed.

It usually does not dig real holes, if they exist, they are very short and shallow. Mines the forest floor and turf layer. Widely uses voids in the roots of stump trees, in dead trunks, under eversion, in heaps of brushwood. For the species, winter and summer ground and subsurface nests are common, located in natural shelters.

The animals climb trees better than other types of forest voles, they are able to climb to a height of up to 12 m. There are known cases of building a nest and giving birth to juveniles in bird houses - hollows.

reproduction and the abundance of the species is closely related to the abundance of complete food. Under favorable conditions, 50% of the animals are able to breed at the age of 26 - 30 days, and by 46 - 50 days, all 100% of the individuals reach sexual maturity. One female brings up to 4 litters per year, more often 2 - 3 litters. There are 5 to 13 cubs in a litter. Pregnancy lasts 17 - 24 days.

The cubs are born naked and blind, weighing from 1 to 10 g, and begin to see for 10-12 days. On the 14th - 15th day they leave the hole, but they switch to green food even earlier.

Spring-summer voles breed and die before the onset of winter. Animals born in August - September give birth in the spring, and do not participate in summer breeding.

IN winter period reproduction is observed during snowy winters without sudden temperature changes.

Nutrition. In all seasons, seeds of herbaceous and woody plants of deciduous forests predominate in the diet of the species. Prefers seeds of acorns and linden, in the east - cedar and berry shrubs. The green parts of plants are present in food throughout the growing season. Animal feed, mainly larvae of various insects, are present in the diet in summer months. In winter, the main food is shoots of berry bushes, bark, and buds. In case of crop failure of the main feed, it switches to any substitutes, including fungi and plant roots. Stocks are small.

Morphologically related species

By morphology ( appearance) the described pest is close to ( Clethrionomysrutilus). Main differences: weakly two-tone tail, the skin does not show through the hairs of the tail, the length of the tail is less than 40 mm, the color of the dorsal part is dominated by bright rusty-brown tones in summer and light, yellowish-brown in winter.

In addition, the Tien Shan forest vole is often found, which is also similar in morphology to the bank vole ( Clethrionomys glareolus).

At the same time, the following geographical variability is observed: the development of brighter tones of red in color in the direction from west to east and a general lightening of color to the south; an increase in size is observed eastward in the plain zones and with height (in Western Europe). In the east of the range, the mountain inhabitants are smaller than the plains and have a darker color. The relative length of the dentition becomes smaller in the direction from north to south.

15 subspecies are described, of which 5-6 are in Russia.

Geographic distribution

bank vole distributed from the Kola Peninsula and the Arkhangelsk region to the Middle Urals in the east and the borders of the insular forests of Ukraine and Southern Urals on South.

In addition, the range of the species extends north to Scotland and Scandinavia, to the Pyrenees in the south, southern Italy, Yugoslavia and Turkey.

Maliciousness

bank vole- the most dangerous hemisanthropic species, actively invading the urban environment, and at the same time populating not quite favorable biotopes - upland meadows. This increases the possibility of transmission of various kinds of infections to humans and requires constant monitoring of the abundance of the species in order to regulate it.

In the taiga zone of the European part of Russia, this species is the main pest of forest and plantation crops. During a periodic (once every 4 - 5 years) increase in the number of animals, they significantly damage young forest plantations and gardens adjacent to forests. Due to the ability to climb trees well, it deals damage above ground level.

In residential areas, warehouses and storage facilities, the bank vole damages and contaminates food and animal feed.

In European foci of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS), this species is the main carrier of hantaviruses. At the same time, it is an active participant in the circulation of pathogens of various infectious diseases: tularemia, tick-borne encephalitis, lymphocytic choriomeningitis, salmonellosis, pseudotuberculosis and many others.

Pesticides

Chemical pesticides

Manual entry into burrows, other shelters, tubes, bait boxes:

Layout of ready-made baits at food enterprises and at home:

Control measures: deratization measures

Sanitary and epidemiological well-being is due to the successful implementation of the entire range of deratization measures, including organizational, preventive, extermination and sanitary and educational measures to combat rodents.

Organizational events include a set of the following measures:

• administrative;
• financial and economic;
• scientific and methodological;
• material.

Preventive actions designed to eliminate favorable living conditions for rodents and exterminate them through the following measures:

• engineering and technical, including the use of various devices that automatically prevent rodents from accessing premises and communications;
• sanitary and hygienic, including the observance of cleanliness in rooms, basements, on the territories of objects;
• agro- and forestry, including measures to cultivate the forests of recreational areas to the state of forest parks and maintain these territories in a state free from weeds, fallen leaves, dead and drying trees; the same group of activities includes deep plowing of land in the fields;
• preventive deratization, including measures to prevent the restoration of the number of rodents with the help of chemical and mechanical means.

The task of carrying out this group of activities lies with legal entities and individual entrepreneurs operating specific facilities and the adjacent territory.

These events are held legal entities and individual entrepreneurs with special training.

Mice are rarely spoken of in a respectful tone. Usually they are described as poor, shy, but very harmful rodents. mouse vole- that is no exception.

This small animal can significantly spoil the crop in the garden, and gnaw a hole in the floor at home. Judging by photo, voles outwardly resembles ordinary mice and. At the same time, the muzzle of the inhabitants of the fields is smaller, and the ears and tail are shorter.

Features and habitat of the vole

The animals themselves belong to a large family of rodents and a subfamily. There are more than 140 field species. Almost everyone has their own differences, but there are also common features:

• small size (body length from 7 centimeters);
• short tail (from 2 centimeters);
• small weight (from 15 g);
• 16 teeth without roots (a new one will grow in place of the fallen tooth).

At the same time, roots were found in fossil rodents, but in the process of evolution, field animals lost them. A typical representative is common vole. This is a small rodent (up to 14 centimeters) with a brownish back and a gray belly. Lives near marshes, near rivers and in meadows. In winter, it prefers to move into people's houses.

Some species of field mice live underground (for example, mole voles). On the contrary, they lead a semi-aquatic lifestyle. In this case, terrestrial representatives are most often found. For example, among forest rodents, the most popular are:

• red-backed vole;
• red-gray field mouse;
• bank vole.

All three species are distinguished by mobility, they can climb bushes and small trees. In the tundra, you can “get acquainted” with pied and, which also belong to this subfamily.

About 20 species of field rodents live in Russia. All of them are small. Residents of Mongolia, East China, Korea and Far East less fortunate. Their economy is harmed big vole.

Pictured is a large vole

Pictured is a red vole mouse

Rodents prepare in advance for the cold. Field mice do not hibernate and are active all year round. voles in winter feed on supplies from their pantries. It can be seeds, grains, nuts. Most often, the animals do not have enough of their own blanks, which is why they run to people's houses.

However, they do not always enter the house by accident. Sometimes rodents are kept as decorative pets. animal vole can live in a small cage with a metal grate filled with sawdust.

There are usually 2-3 females per male. In winter, it is recommended to transfer to larger cages and leave them in unheated rooms.

Pictured is a red-backed vole

Also, these rodents are used for scientific purposes. Biological and medical experiments are most often carried out on red and steppe vole. If mice are wound up in the apartment “illegally”, you should contact the sanitary and epidemiological station. Voles breed very actively and can significantly damage property.

Nutrition

The owners of such an unusual pet as vole mouse you should know that a pet needs balanced diet. The daily diet should include:

• vegetables;
• corn;
• cottage cheese;
• meat;
• eggs;
• fresh raw water.

For those who only dream buy vole, it should be understood that these are very voracious rodents, they are able to eat food more than their weight per day.

Many people believe that field mice are omnivores in nature. However, this is not quite true. "Menu" directly depends on the habitat. For example, steppe animals feed on grasses and plant roots. In the meadow, rodents choose juicy stems and all kinds of berries. forest voles feast on young shoots and buds, mushrooms, berries and nuts.

Almost all types of mice will not refuse small insects and larvae. water vole, for unknown reasons, likes potatoes and root vegetables. In general, vegetables and fruits from gardens are the favorite food of almost all field mice.

Rodents in in large numbers can cause irreparable damage to the economy. In apartments and houses, mice eat everything they can steal: bread, straw, cheese, sausage, vegetables.

Pictured is a water vole

Reproduction and lifespan

It cannot be said that these are exclusively harmful creatures. In nature, they are an important link in the food chain. Without mice, many predators would starve, including martens and.

However, it is better not to let wild voles near the houses. These are very prolific rodents. In the natural environment, a female can bring from 1 to 7 litters in one year. And each will have 4-6 little mice. In greenhouse conditions, the animals breed even more actively.

The pregnancy itself lasts no more than a month. Mice become independent after 1-3 weeks. Captive gray voles become sexually mature at the age of 2-3 months. Pets - a little earlier.

Pictured is a gray vole

The age of these rodents is short, and rarely the mouse survives to the age of two. However, during this short period, vole can give birth to about 100 cubs. That is, a flock of one mouse can completely destroy stocks of root crops for the winter and other products.

Despite the fact that field mice are so prolific, some species are listed in the "Red". Vinogradov's Lemmings are in critical condition, and the Alai Slepushonka is endangered. There are also vulnerable species and voles that are in a state close to threatened.

A small animal from the genus of forest voles - body length 8–12 cm, tail 4–7 cm, body weight 15–40 g. It can be seen at dusk, and sometimes during the day.

Usually this reddish, not very short-tailed animal snoops under the canopy of forest vegetation in fallen leaves and forest rags. And at the beginning of winter, as soon as the snow falls, numerous trails of bank voles will trace the virgin whiteness of fresh powder.

At the top left - the lower surface of the front and hind legs, respectively, of the bank vole, below - the litter of the animal; on the right - traces of a vole moving in the snow by jumping

Bank voles are lighter and more agile than slow voles. Perhaps their typical gait is light jumps 10–15 cm long.

The prints of all 4 paws are arranged in the form of trapeziums, like in mice and, while a short tail strip is often imprinted on the snow. These marks are easily recognizable. They differ from tracks in shorter jumps and a short tail print, and from tracks of gray voles in that the latter usually do not jump with such jumps.

But it happens that bank voles also move with a quick mincing step, exactly the same as other voles run, and in which the prints are located alternately on one or the other side of the track - a snake.

The length of the steps is 6–8 cm. Such traces can be very difficult to determine. You have to look for additional signs that could suggest the correct answer, such as litter. In the bank vole, each of its grains is strongly pointed on one side, in addition, they are very small - 5 × 2 mm. The size of the front foot of this animal is 1.1 x 1, the back foot is 1.7 x 1.5 cm.

In winter, bank voles often fill entire trails from one mink to another, running back and forth many times. They usually run for short distances, and jump when they need to cover a long distance. These mobile animals can move away from the hole for several hundred meters.

Voles feed on leaves, buds and tree bark, as well as berries and mushrooms. Berries are used in different ways. Often on stumps and forest logs in autumn you can find a whole bunch of rowan fruits, from which only seeds are selected, and all the pulp is left as unnecessary.

But in rose hips, they often ate the pulp, and pulled out and gnawed the seeds. I remember how, having waited for the mushroom season, I went to the familiar spruce forest, where in previous years I collected young strong porcini mushrooms. But this time he returned home with an empty basket. All the boletus boletus that appeared on the surface were ground down by the sharp teeth of bank voles.

The fact that this was their work was clearly indicated by the droppings left near the whitening stumps. Apparently, the year for the animals was not very successful, if they attacked the mushrooms so much. These voles gnaw on many types of mushrooms, including very bitter bile mushrooms.

In winter, voles pick up fallen or dropped by crossbills spruce cones and. cutting the scales to about half with sharp teeth, they choose tasty seeds.