Red or forest vole (clethrionomys glareolus). Vole mouse. Vole lifestyle and habitat Folk recipes against voles

How to determine the presence of a vole mouse in a summer cottage, effective methods of controlling a rodent? These questions are of interest to many gardeners. But which of them show the best results, how to prevent a new invasion of rodents? Everything you need to know about voles can be found in the following material.

Features and description of the rodent

The vole mouse differs from its relatives in its small size. An adult is able to reach no more than 13 centimeters in length, with most (up to 70%) occupied by the tail. The mouse has a pointed muzzle, small brown eyes. The ears of the animal are tilted slightly forward, but pressed to the head. In appearance, a cute rodent causes irreparable damage to agriculture, despite its small size.

Mouse fur is very coarse and hard. In most cases, the color of the rodent is beige, gray or brown. The belly of the mouse is painted white, there is a clear black line on the back. The exact color of the rodent depends on its age, young individuals have a dark color, slightly older mice are lighter, old rodents are almost beige, there are gray hairs.

Mice live in natural shelters or in self-dug holes. Remarkably, small animals are able to dig a hole up to four meters in length. One exit necessarily goes to the reservoir, the burrow also includes a nesting room and several storages for food supplies. The latter are usually located at a depth of more than one meter. The favorite habitats of pests are swamps.

Vole mice differ from their relatives in some features by which it is easy to recognize a rodent:

• voles are the only representatives of the rodent class to have a black stripe on the back;
• in size, field mice are slightly larger than their relatives;
• voles are very similar to Daurian hamsters, the only distinguishing feature is the presence of a long tail;
• unlike other species, the vole has a long period of puberty - about 100 days;
• mice like to settle in feeding areas, destroying the harvested crop;
• Also, voles have one feature that is not characteristic of other species - they are able to settle near swamps.

Interesting to know! Rodents are active in the evening, at night. In autumn and winter, they are awake even during the day. It is noteworthy that mice do not hibernate during the winter season.

Reasons for the appearance

Why do voles start up in summer cottages? Rodents need food, constant availability of water and heat. All these qualities are possessed by warehouses, basements, which are available in the country. Also, rodents are able to feast on human supplies located in secluded corners of the kitchen. The ways of passage of pests are: ventilation ducts, open windows and doors, cracks in the floor, walls.

It is very easy to notice a pest in a summer cottage. The main signs of the life of the animal are the presence of minks, feces throughout the house, in secluded places. Also, pests leave their marks everywhere. This is due to the fact that the teeth of rodents grow throughout their lives, they need to be sharpened. What does a vole eat? It is typical for mice to gnaw on the bark of trees, the lower parts of shrubs in the winter season.

Harm to a person

When entering the cellar, the rodent completely destroys all supplies for the winter. In spring, pests feed on young shoots, bark, causing significant damage to the crop that has not yet appeared. Given the harm caused by mice, immediately deal with the destruction of rodents, otherwise the loss of food, plantings in the garden cannot be avoided.

How to get rid of a mouse - voles

Mankind has come up with many methods of dealing with voles, all of them can be divided into several main categories:

• that have stood the test of time;
• physical methods that involve the use of mechanical devices: traps, traps, mousetraps. This category includes the natural enemy of mice - a cat,;
• chemicals: various aerosols, poisons, poisoned baits. show excellent results, but is often dangerous for humans or animals living in the country house.

When choosing the right method against vole, consider the features of the room in which there are pests, the presence of animals.

Folk remedies and recipes

Folk recipes against voles:

Many prefer to use proven mechanical methods, but keep in mind that you will have to regularly remove the carcasses of dead individuals. If the number of rodents is very large, then the bait may not work (the mouse can gobble up the bait, dodge the mousetrap). Many people prefer to get a cat, but "fluffies" live in the country with their owners only until winter. Not every cat is able to instill fear in mice, most pets themselves are afraid of rodents or simply do not want to hunt them.

Excellent results show homemade traps:

Chemicals

Effective drugs:

• wax tablets "Storm". Spread the product in boxes, burrows, drainage pipes. The tablets have a deterrent effect, if the pest tastes the remedy, it will die within two weeks;
• universal "Granules". They are made from natural wheat grains. The tool has a cumulative effect (an infected mouse carries poison on its paws, fur, affecting its relatives);
• glue "Muskidan". Effectively copes with voles not only in the summer cottage, but also indoors. It is recommended to apply it on cardboard, place the bait in the middle. When it hits the glue, the mouse sticks tightly and quickly dies.

You can get rid of voles by populating the summer cottage with natural enemies: owls (one individual eats up to two thousand mice a year), martens, foxes feed exclusively on voles. Weasel is able to penetrate the holes of a rodent, destroy offspring.

The field mouse is a dangerous rodent that can destroy a lot of crops. If a pest is found, immediately start fighting it, use the useful recommendations of specialists.

Vole family (Microtidae).

Widespread and numerous species of voles in Belarus. In the south of the republic, it lives in almost all forest biotopes. Forest bank voles of Belarus belong to the nominal form - C. g. glareolus. In Grodno, Minsk and Mogilev regions. the nominal form of this species lives. However, among voles in the Vitebsk region. there are instances of darker individuals - C. g. suecicus, and in the south of the Gomel region. there are specimens with a lighter coat color - C. g. hystericus.

Length: body 8.1-12.3 cm, tail 3.6-7.2 cm, feet 1.5-1.8 cm, ear 1.0-1.5 cm. Body weight 14-28 g (up to 36 g). The tail is covered with short and sparse hair, distinctly, rarely slightly bicolored; its length, as a rule, is more than 45% of the length of the body.

There is no sexual dimorphism. The color of the fur on the back is rusty-brown, on the sides it is dark gray, the bottom is light gray with an admixture of yellowness. The tail is dark above, light below, slightly pubescent. In winter, the back is brighter, rusty-buffy, the sides are reddish-buffy, the belly is whitish. In the northern, or dark, bank vole C. g. suecicus darker fur coloration. The winter fur on its back is rusty brownish, noticeably darker than that of the typical form. In the southern form C. g. istericus is lighter in color than the typical form.

It is easily distinguished from gray voles by the color of the upper body (there are rusty and reddish-red tones).

A typical background representative of the faunal complex of broad-leaved and coniferous-broad-leaved forests of Belarus. Everywhere it prefers clarified areas of the forest, clearings with well-developed undergrowth and herbage. It usually avoids wetlands, dry forests and cultivated lands, appearing there only during a period of high abundance. In favorable years, the maximum vole density is observed in mixed coniferous-deciduous forests. Animals adhere to areas with natural shelters - hollow trunks of fallen trees, root plexuses, piles of deadwood or stones. The animal climbs trees well.

The burrows and passages dug by the vole do not lie deeper than 15 cm. However, it digs burrows itself relatively rarely, according to other data (Savitsky et al., 2005), it does not dig at all. For nests, he uses natural shelters - heaps of brushwood, rotten stumps, the root system of various trees. Nests are spherical, 10-15 cm in diameter, built from moss shoots, herbaceous plants and tree leaves. For the wintering period, it often moves to human habitation, settling in stacks of straw, cellars, gardens, utility and residential buildings.

The bank vole is active at any time of the day, but mainly at twilight and at night. Typically, the animal moves from cover to cover under fallen trees, dry grass or fallen leaves, avoiding being in open spaces for a long time. Summer heat and prolonged rains shorten the duration of the active period. The size of an individual plot of a vole depends on the season of the year, sex and age characteristics of the animal, population density, living conditions and can reach 2 ha.

Males are more sedentary than females. Regular seasonal migrations are not characteristic of this species, but in autumn, in the absence of food, the animals can move to more nutritious places. Migrations of the bank vole from forest biotopes to agricultural lands and shores of water bodies do not exceed 50–100 m.

The range of foods for the bank vole is extremely wide and varied. In summer, her food is made up of green shoots of strawberries, anemones, lungwort, bedstraw, St. John's wort, lily of the valley, chickweed, in autumn - seeds of herbs, trees and shrubs, berries and all edible mushrooms, in winter and early spring the food set is poorer. These are shoots and bark of tree species, rhizomes of herbaceous plants, mosses, lichens. At all times of the year, animal food (worms, insects and their larvae) and sometimes carrion can be found in the vole's stomach. In just a day, they consume 5-7 g of food. In general, green fodder in all seasons of the year is the main one, accounting for 75.6% of the diet and increasing to 95.1% in spring. Seeds make up 26.7% of the diet. Berries and mushrooms are found in summer and autumn.

The instinct to store food is not sufficiently expressed and is manifested only in individuals that are poorly provided with food. However, the size of the reserves is small (usually less than 100 g) and most often by the spring they remain unused. Reserves are placed in root voids, hollows of fallen trees, crevices of rotten stumps and other random places.

The bank vole starts breeding at the age of about 1-1.5 months, according to other data (Savitsky et al., 2005), at the age of 1.5-2 months.

It reproduces quite intensively. In spring, sexual activity in males begins earlier than in females, and ends later. In connection with polygamy, the emptying of adult females is very rare. Pregnancy lasts 18-20 (sometimes more) days. The first pregnant females appear at the end of April, the breeding process ends at the beginning of October. Females of the first generations start breeding in the same year and are able to bring up to 2 litters. Females of the third generation start breeding only in the next spring. The number of litters is usually 3, sometimes 4, with 3-9 cubs in each. Newborns are naked, blind, weighing 1.3-1.8 g. The hairline appears on the 9-10th, the eyes open on the 10-12th day. From this time on, young animals begin to eat natural food.

An important object of food for predatory animals, birds and reptiles (common viper).

Populations are renewed annually by 90%, since a small number of voles live in natural conditions for more than a year.

Species: Clethrionomys (= Myodes) glareolus = Red (forest) vole, European bank vole

Description. Relatively small appearance. Body length up to 120 mm, tail - up to 60 mm., Feet -15-20 mm, ear - 11-14 mm. Weight up to 35 gr. Eye 3 mm. The color of the fur of the back (mantle) is rusty-brown in various shades. The belly is grayish-whitish (sometimes the white tone is quite pure. The tail is usually sharply bicolored. The color of the legs is silvery-whitish, sometimes with a faint brownish tint. The winter fur on the back of bank voles is clearly lighter and redder than in summer. The coloration brightens and turns yellow to the south and reddens to the east The dimensions increase towards the northeast, decreasing with height (in the mountains of Western Europe, the ratio is apparently reversed. On the plains of Western Siberia, it most reliably differs from other species of bank voles living together in the length of the tail (up to 45 mm). The hind limb has 6 foot calluses.

The skull is relatively small, with moderate cheekbones. The condylobasal length of the skull in fully mature and old specimens is 21.7–26 mm; The roots of molars are formed early, which allows their size growth to be used to determine age. In most cases, M3 has 4 protruding corners on the inside.

There is no distinct sexual dimorphism either in the size of the body or in the structure of the skull. In ethological observations in nature, adult females show greater elegance in appearance and in movement. Soskov: r. 2-2; i. 2-2 (=8).

Spreading. The bank vole is common in the forest zone of the mountains (up to 1900 m, and in the Alps even up to 2400 m) and plains from Scotland to Turkey in the west and the lower reaches of the river. Yenisei and Sayan in the east. In the north of Europe to the border of the distribution of forests in the central part of Lapland and the lower reaches of the river. Pechora, in the Trans-Urals up to 65o N In Siberia, the northern limit of distribution has not been clarified. In the south of Western Siberia, the distribution coincides with the northern border of the forest-steppe. It penetrates into the tundra and steppe through floodplain forests of rivers.

Biotopes. The bank vole inhabits all types of forests, and penetrates into residential buildings located in the middle of the forest. The optimum range is mixed and broad-leaved forests of Europe. During periods of rise and high abundance, this vole is found almost everywhere in various biotopes, inhabiting them more or less evenly. Avoids open stations.

Ecology. Almost throughout the range - a common and numerous species. In the European part of the range, it dominates among forest rodents. The density of settlements in optimal habitat conditions during the breeding season reaches 200 individuals/ha. To assess the resource and social capacity of habitats, the most indicative is the number of breeding females. In Central Europe this value reaches 20-25 females/ha. In the northern and eastern parts of the range, 5-7 females/ha participate in reproduction. Population dynamics is cyclical. The bank vole is characterized by a relatively short duration of peaks (1-2 years), a rapid recovery of numbers after depressions and a gradual decrease in numbers after upsurges. A more or less pronounced cyclicity of fluctuations with a period of 2-5 years is characteristic.

The bank vole is characterized by a mixed type of nutrition. The range of feed is wide and varied. It feeds on both the ground parts of plants and their root parts. Readily eaten seeds of various herbs and trees (spruce, oak, linden, ash, maple), wild berries. Voles, even during daily feeding, alternate types of food: with a sufficient abundance of them, after 5 minutes of feeding on an acorn, the voles will definitely seize it with some kind of green food and vice versa. The vole hides the half-eaten acorn and quite confidently finds it when visiting this place again. With a seasonal abundance of one or another type of food, storage is characteristic. In winter, the daily diet often includes random types of food (ballast): the bark of trees and shrubs, forest litter. I willingly drink dew and rainwater, eat snow.

The bank vole builds a simple burrow structure. Natural voids under the forest floor, elements of other types of burrows are used. Nest chambers are preferably arranged under old stumps, in a cluster of stones overgrown with moss. The variety of nesting places is determined by the possibility of arranging a chamber with a diameter of 10-15 cm and two or three short approaches to it. A spherical nest is built from dry grass and leaves of the forest litter (litter). The entrance hole with a diameter of 3 cm of a vole is often closed with two or three specially placed dry leaves. An adult female changes 2-3 brood burrows during the breeding season (Mironov, 1979). Before the next birth, the nest lining is updated. The subsnow system of tunnels is much more diverse and complex. The direction of undersnow communications is formed according to the stereotype of movements in the snowless period, and the location layer in the snow thickness depends on the intensity of movements of voles during the formation of this snow layer. Long passages in the snow do not gnaw through. In dry snow, voles simply pierce it, while making quick head movements from side to side. Voles dig wet snow with their front paws, making alternating digging movements in front of them. Under the snow, various kinds of niches are readily used under the branches of trees, along the lying tree trunks. The network of snow passages is formed due to the connection of individual communications.

Behavior. Activity in the bank vole is polyphasic (European bank vole, 1981). During the day there are 5-8 periods of activity. The activity phase lasts about 60 minutes, after which the vole goes to rest in the nesting hole and sleeps for 60-90 minutes. In optimal habitats, the daily rhythm of activity is uniform: the vole is equally active in the daytime and in the dark. In the zone of taiga forests, the rhythm of daily activity shifts towards the dark part of the day. In the budget of the activity phase, up to 80% of the activity is occupied by feeding behavior. The size of the used territory in adult females is 400-1000 m2, in males 1000-8000 m2. The shape of the plots is amoeboid. Plot sizes increase from south to north and east. The main determining factor in their change is the ecological capacity of the habitat (food supply, density of the adult population). The structure of the habitat area is represented by a network of trails connecting the nesting hole with 3-5 feeding areas. When moving, voles run between trees and stumps. During one period of activity, the vole runs 50-370 m. The paths are stereotyped. The sites of adult females are strictly isolated. Females will actively expel any visitor. In bank voles, a ritual manifestation of feelings is described (after fights, when someone else's traces are found): the animal spins in one place, throwing the forest floor out from under it and alternately scratching the sides of the body with its hind legs. The male visits several neighboring females, i.e. areas overlap. Without conflicts, the male is allowed to enter the territory of the female only during the spring rut or prenatal estrus (2-3 days). During the breeding season, bank voles lead a solitary lifestyle. In winter, they can join groups. In nature, voles live 1-1.5 years. The maximum life expectancy is 750 days (the Les na Vorskla nature reserve) and 1120 days (in the laboratory).

Reproduction. The breeding season begins in March-April and ends in August-September. The beginning of the spring rut is associated with the complete melting of snow. In some years, under-snow breeding is noted, which depends on a complex of favorable factors that have developed in a particular population. The female brings more than three broods. In a broad-leaved oak forest ("Forest on Vorskla") in 1974, by the middle of July, the female had successfully reared 6 broods.

Pregnancy lasts 20 days. The female alone raises the brood. The cubs are born blind and naked. The size of the broods increases with the age of the females and the number of births. Usually there are 5-6 cubs in a brood, the maximum known number is 13. They begin to see clearly for 10-12 days. On their own, the cubs begin to eat green food even in the nest - the female brings sluggish leaves there. On the 14-15th day, they begin to emerge from the hole. In most breeding females, the lactation period coincides with the next pregnancy. A few days before giving birth, the female leaves the brood to another prepared hole (20-50 m from the previous one). After 5 days, the brood is divided into two or three groups and moves to neighboring holes. At the age of one month, the composition of the groups mixes with the cubs of other females or completely breaks up. Teenagers begin to lead independent lives. Young females mature early - at the age of a month there may be first pregnancies. Young males mature at the age of 3 months.

The bank vole changes its fur several times during its life. The first juvenile molt begins at the age of 5 weeks. Shortly after it, a post-juvenile molt takes place, during which the sparse and short grayish-brown fur is replaced by summer fur in those born in spring and early summer, or winter fur in those born in late summer and autumn. In the future, a regular change of fur occurs in spring and autumn. It is closely related to environmental and internal factors: sexual activity, pregnancy, lactation.

Order - Rodents / Family - Hamsters / Subfamily - Voles

History of study

Red (forest) vole, or European red-backed vole, or European forest vole (lat. Myodes glareolus) is a species of rodent of the forest vole genus.

Spreading

The bank vole is common in the lowland, foothill and mountain forests of Europe, the north of Asia Minor and Siberia. In Europe, it is found from Southern Ireland, the British Isles, the central and eastern Pyrenees to the Black Sea regions of Turkey; distributed almost everywhere except Spain, the southern part of the Apennine and Balkan Peninsulas and northern Scandinavia (Lapland). It lives in isolation in the southwestern Transcaucasia (Adzhar-Imeretinsky ridge). The northern border of the range as a whole coincides with the border of the distribution of forests; southern - with the northern border of the forest-steppe. It penetrates into the tundra and steppe through floodplain forests of river valleys.

Appearance

Small mouse-like rodent: body length 8-11.5 cm, tail length 3-6 cm. Weight 17-35 g. The color of the back fur is rusty-brown. Belly greyish-whitish. The tail is usually sharply bicolored - dark above, whitish below, covered with short sparse hair. Winter fur is lighter and redder than summer. The coloration generally brightens and turns yellow towards the south and reddish towards the east. The body size increases towards the northeast, decreasing in the mountains. There is no distinct sexual dimorphism either in body size or in the structure of the skull. Up to 35 subspecies have been described, of which 5-6 live in Russia.

reproduction

The breeding season (in the middle lane) begins in March - April, sometimes still under snow, and ends in August - September. The female brings 3-4 broods per year, 5-6 cubs in each (up to a maximum of 10-13). Pregnancy lasts from 17 to 24 days (during lactation). Cubs are born blind and naked, weighing 1-10 g; see the light for 10-12 days. On the 14th-15th day they leave the hole, but they begin to eat green food even earlier. In most females, the lactation period is combined with the next pregnancy. A few days before giving birth, the female leaves the brood in another hole, and after 5 days the brood breaks up into groups, and by the month of life it passes to a completely independent life. Females are able to become pregnant as early as 2-3 weeks; males reach sexual maturity at 6-8 weeks of age. In European forests, underyearlings of the first litter have time to give up to 3 broods during the summer, the second - 1-2, the third (in favorable years) - 1. In the east, only underyearlings of the first litter (1-2 broods) breed.

In nature, voles live 0.5-1.5 years. The maximum life expectancy is 750 days (the Les na Vorskla reserve) and 1120 days (in the laboratory). They are hunted by weasels, ermines, minks, foxes, birds of prey.

Nutrition

It feeds on greens, tree seeds, mushrooms, insect larvae. In winter, it gnaws at the bark, sometimes climbing above the snow surface. It prefers the bark of aspens, sometimes gnawing large fallen trees during the winter. In some places it makes stocks of lichens for the winter, crushing them into lumps and folding them behind the lagging bark.

Lifestyle

Inhabitant of the forest zone. Penetrates through forested islands in the steppe. Inhabits all types of forests. In winter, it often lives in haystacks and human buildings. It feeds on seeds, bark, tree buds, fungi, lichens and herbaceous plants. Active at night. Arranges nests in hollows and rotten stumps, rarely digs holes with 1-2 chambers.

population

It is a common and numerous species practically throughout its range; in the European part of the range it dominates among forest rodents. The density of settlements during the breeding season reaches 200 individuals/ha. The highest and most constant abundance is characteristic of populations of European deciduous forests with a predominance of linden and southern taiga spruce-linden forests. Population dynamics is cyclical. Short-term (1-2 years) population peaks are repeated after 2-5 years; fluctuations in numbers near the boundaries of the range are especially noticeable.

Red vole and man

The bank vole is harmful in forest nurseries, gardens and windbreaks, and in years of high abundance - in forests, mainly in winter. Can damage products in warehouses and residential areas. It carries a number of vector-borne diseases, including hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome and tick-borne encephalitis. Carriage of pathogens of at least 10 other zoonoses has also been established. One of the hosts of ixodid tick nymphs.

Early in the morning, as soon as the hostess opened the door, a striped Murka slipped under her feet into the house - and behind the bed, to a box with an old towel in which the kittens sniff warmly. A reddish body - a bank vole - falls into the box with a slight slap. Sleepy kittens poke first into a motionless gray-red lump, then into a more interesting mother's belly. While the future predators are busy with milk, the vole seeps into the holey corner of the box, into the crack between the floorboards, then out into the street, into the raspberry-nettle thickets along the fence and up the slope, to the birches and fir trees of the Arkhangelsk taiga. Lucky!

For Murka, this vole is far from the first in the morning. Here in the north, true mice are rare. The European taiga is the realm of the bank vole. Even in a village hut you will see these animals rather than house mice. However, the little "queen" is full of various enemies. How does she manage to survive among feathered and furry hunters and crackling taiga frosts?

IN THE SUMMER FOREST

The red-backed vole is undoubtedly a forest species. Its favorite habitats are oak-linden forests. In them and in the north of the forest-steppe, this species feels great: voles are numerous here, and years of depression (when there are very few animals) are rare.

To the north, in the taiga, the bank vole has a hard time in winter. Oaks with their large nutritious acorns are very rare, almost all lindens are in the villages. Spruce seeds are nutritious, but small, and the harvest of cones in the middle taiga happens every 4-5 years. In summer, food suitable for the animal can be found almost everywhere - after all, there are more than 100 species of plants on the menu of the bank vole: goutweed, yarrow, plantain, lily of the valley, St. John's wort, elecampane, sorrel, stonecrop ...

In summer, females make nests in old stumps, heaps of deadwood, under roots and ectropions, dragging bunches of dry grass, lichen, and, on occasion, wool and feathers inside. In a good, warm summer, one vole can bring two or even three broods of 5-6 cubs each.

SEARCH UNDER THE SNOW

However, not everyone will survive the first winter: cold, starvation and predators do their job. In the cold, a small body quickly loses heat, and bank voles rarely get out on the snow. However, they make short runs from butt to butt even in 20-degree frosts. Under the snow there is something to profit from. There are many winter-green plants in the taiga, such as lingonberries and wintergreens. Their leaves survive until spring and begin photosynthesis as soon as the snow begins to melt, and die off later, when new ones appear. Blueberries shed their leaves, but the green stems remain. At all times of the year, greenery prevails in the diet of bank voles, but tender young leaves are not found in winter, and the animals gnaw on leathery, darkened lingonberry leaves. If you're lucky, you can profit from a spruce cone dropped from a shaggy spruce top by crossbills or a woodpecker. All the “sour” (that is, green ones that fell to the ground) cones had long been eaten by the middle of winter, only rods in rags of red scales remained from them. Baskets of cornflowers and nettle catkins, covered with snow, are also ruined. The stock of seeds in the mink is melting... Before spring, more and more often you have to run upstairs, where the opened cones of spruce and pine scatter seeds. And then a flock of taiga titmouse-powders, peeling hard cones of alder, will drop something. But predators are also hungry before spring, and the odorous track of a vole in the snow will not go unnoticed!

TAIGA NEIGHBORS

The bank vole has a lot of rodent neighbors in the taiga. The other two species of forest voles are rare here. Red is found in the real taiga, along coniferous old forests. Gray voles live in fields and meadows: the common voles live where it is drier, and the large root voles live in floodplain meadows with lush grass. In some places, along the curtains of weeds in the fields, there is a field mouse, and in large villages - a brownie. Luckily for the bank vole, it's too north for mice. Further south, in broad-leaved forests, field mice are the main competitors of bank voles.

THE CASE OF TAXONOMY

In 1780, the German naturalist, student of C. Linnaeus I. Schreber, in the fourth volume of the encyclopedia "Mammals in Drawings from Life with Descriptions" gave a biological description of a small rodent caught on the Danish island of Lolland. According to the Linnaean system, it received a double name - Mus glareolus(red mouse). And if the specific epithet, glareolus, has remained the same since then, taxonomists still argue about the generic name.

Pretty soon it became clear that in the genus of mice, voles and lemmings have no place, despite their resemblance. There are many internal differences. The most significant was found in the structure of the skull and teeth. In mice and rats, molars have roots and are covered with enamel, that is, they are limited in growth, only incisors constantly grow. The chewing surface of the teeth of voles is not covered with enamel, it is located on the sides of the tooth and forms loops on the surface. By the way, according to their pattern, you can distinguish the bank vole from its relatives - red and red-gray. The surface of the teeth in voles is worn down, but the teeth are constantly growing. Mice prefer to eat various seeds and fruitlets, voles often feed on the green parts of plants.

What is the name of the genus to which the bank vole belongs? This is a real detective story, and the case has not yet been closed. At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, the bank vole was placed in the genus Evotomys, described by the American zoologist E. Couse in 1874. Since 1928, thanks to another American, T. Palmer, the name Clethirionomys. Rechecking earlier European publications, he found that the genus of forest voles had already been described in 1850 by the German scientist W. Tilesius. By right of the "older" (that is, earlier) synonym, the name was fixed Clethirionomys. But Palmer missed that even earlier, in 1811, the famous traveler and naturalist P. S. Pallas described the genus Myodes. This was noticed only in the 1960s, and the controversy resumed. As a result, at the beginning of the 21st century, some zoologists called the genus of forest voles Myodes, others continued to use the name Clethirionomys, challenging the decision on a new renaming. Still others, avoiding the battles of seasoned taxonomists, wrote both names, so long as it was clear which species was meant.

Bank vole in the food chain

Voles eat a wide variety of plants: shrubs and herbs, bark, shoots, leaves and fruits of trees and shrubs, mosses, lichens, fungi, insects, worms, and even small vertebrates (for example, frogs).

NUTRITION OF THE POLE VOLE

SPRUCE

Spruce is the main tree of the European taiga, which largely determines the life of all its inhabitants. Spruce cones open in the second half of winter, scattering light brown seeds over the surface of the snow. Then numerous paths of voles appear on the snow, collecting nutritious seeds.

BLUEBERRY

In late July - early August, blueberries ripen. A good harvest happens every few years. But even in a bad year for blueberry jam, the bank vole will find the gray berries hidden under the pale green leaves of the shrub. At harvest time, blueberries become a staple on the bank vole menu.

SLEEP

The soft stems and leaves of this umbrella plant are eaten by everything (young leaves can be used to make a salad). This shade-tolerant plant reproduces vegetatively under the closed canopy of spruce forests, but on the sunny edges it throws out fragrant white umbrellas of flowers and produces seeds. The bank vole eats both the leaves and the flowers of the goutweed.

lichen cladonia

Beautiful whitish "caps" in white-moss forests are formed not at all by mosses, but by lichens of the Shota genus. Alpine, forest and deer cladonias are widely distributed in the taiga zone, and they are eaten not only by the bank vole, but also by other inhabitants of the taiga. During rain, the lichens get wet, acquire a greenish tint and emit a distinct mushroom smell.

ENEMIES OF THE POLE VOLE

FOREST MARTEN

It climbs trees beautifully, often gets a squirrel right in the gaine (the so-called squirrel's nest). One marten squirrel is enough to feed for two days. However, squirrels are not easy prey, and forest voles often form the basis of the marten's diet. The marten willingly eats insects, berries and nuts.

Weasel and Ermine

This pair of small predators from the weasel family are specialized myophages (literally - “ mouse-eating"). Both can chase voles in their moves, especially . Nimble, flexible predators do not miss their prey either among the stones or among the deadwood, they make passages in the snow mass.

KESTREL

During the hunt, this red falcon hangs over one; now over another place, finely fluttering its long wings and spreading the striped fan of its tail. It prefers to hunt in open places, therefore it catches gray voles more often, but it also catches red voles regularly. In winter, the kestrel is not able to get rodents from under the snow, so in the fall it goes for wintering to warmer climes.

Tawny Owl

In size, the Great Gray Owl is second only to the Eagle Owl and the Snowy Owl. This large, strong bird hears the movement of a vole under a thickness of snow about half a meter deep, "dives" into the snow forward with its paws and closes sharp, curved claws on its prey. Thanks to these abilities, the Great Gray Owl successfully hibernates in the taiga.