Prairie vole

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Prairie vole
Prairie vole.gif

Prairie vole ( Microtus ochrogaster )

Systematics
Superfamily : Mice-like (Muroidea)
Family : Burrowers (Cricetidae)
Subfamily : Voles (arvicolinae)
Tribe : Arvicolini
Genre : Field mice ( Microtus )
Type : Prairie vole
Scientific name
Microtus ochrogaster
( Wagner , 1843)

The prairie vole ( Microtus ochrogaster , also "prairie mouse") is a North American vole . Unusually for voles they show a monogamous social life, the connection with a high release of the hormone oxytocin is being researched.

features

The prairie vole is a dark, brownish, or blackish field mouse. The underside is yellow-brown in color. Their tail is shorter than twice the length of the hind foot. A thin, somewhat darker stripe runs dorsally on the pale yellowish-brown tail. The narrow ears disappear almost entirely in the long, loose fur. There are only five tubercles on the soles of the feet. The prairie vole reaches a total length of 146 mm, a tail length of 34 mm and a hind foot length of 20 mm. It weighs 30 to 50 g.

Tooth formula
1 · 0 · 0 · 3  =  16
1 · 0 · 0 · 3

distribution

The distribution area of ​​the prairie vole extends over the prairie states of the United States (east-central Alberta, central Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba in the south, through northern Oklahoma and Arkansas and east to Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, central Tennessee and all of western Virginia) north to the south-central provinces of Canada. Relic populations occur in central Colorado and northern New Mexico, and formerly in southwestern Louisiana and adjacent Texas. The disjointly distributed subspecies Microtus ochrogaster ludovicianus, which used to be found in eastern Texas and western Louisiana, is apparently extinct.

Habitat and way of life

Prairie voles are found in a variety of prairie habitats as well as in agricultural highlands. They inhabit grasslands , herbaceous fields, old agricultural areas and shrubbery, so suitable substrates on which they can create their passage systems. Stocks in Banks pine forests have also been reported, as well as occurrences in bluegrass areas in Kansas , Artemisia stocks in Wyoming, and fescue ballgrass grasslands in Indiana . In the southwest of the United States , floodplains serve as dispersal routes, railways and expressways spread the dispersal in the distribution areas.

Prairie voles are active all day, day and night, mainly at dawn and dusk. Day activity decreases in summer and night activity in winter. Their diet consists of grasses and herbaceous , non-grassy plants and some insects. They seem to be stocking up for the winter; considerable quantities of tubers, roots and small onions were found in the winter chambers of the burrows. Prairie voles, on the other hand, are important prey for many predators.

The buildings with chambers and side channels are quite flat, but strikingly complex. The nests are created under construction, under tree trunks or above ground in tufts of grass, winter nests also in old anthills. Young are raised all year round, especially in spring and fall. The gestation lasts 20 to 23 days. The litter consists of one to seven, on average three to four boys who are looked after by both parents and sometimes older siblings. The young are usually sexually mature after about five to six weeks .

The prairie voles have three types of social group. They live mainly as monogamous pairs, as single females or in communities of two to 21 individuals, mostly because of the higher survival rate of philopatric pups in late autumn, but also because of unrelated animals that join pairs. Life expectancy is generally a year or less.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b William B. Davis, David J. Schmidly: The Mammals of Texas. Online edition. ( Prairie Vole Online )
  2. ^ A b c d e f John O. Whitaker, William John Hamilton: Mammals of the Eastern United States. Cornell University Press, 1998, ISBN 978-0801434754 , pp. 342, 343
  3. a b c d e f IUCN

Web links

Commons : Prairie vole ( Microtus ochrogaster )  - Collection of images, videos and audio files