Microtus is a greek word for "small ear" and ochrogaster is Greek for "yellow belly". Prairie voles undergo a two to four year population cycle where populations increase and decrease dramatically in that cycle.
As is true of most rodents, communication is likely to involve a number of different mechanisms. Although not specifically reported for these animals, vocalizations are common in rodents, as are scent cues. Tactile communication is important between mates and within a nest containing young. Further, different body postures seem to play some role in defensive interactions within the species.
Communication Channels: visual ; tactile ; acoustic ; chemical
Perception Channels: visual ; tactile ; acoustic ; chemical
Loss of native prairies is causing a decline in prairie vole populations in parts of the upper Midwest. They are listed as endangered in the state of Michigan.
US Federal List: no special status
CITES: no special status
State of Michigan List: endangered
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: least concern
In places near agricultural fields or gardens, prairie voles may be considered pests. Prairie voles cause damage to trees by stem injury, with pines most commonly affected.
Negative Impacts: crop pest
Prairie voles are important parts of the prairie ecosystems in which they live. They have also been used in research for many decades.
Positive Impacts: research and education
Prairie voles are important in nutrient cycling in prairie ecosystems and as prey animals for many predator species.
Prairie voles are herbivorous. Food items include soft basal segments of grasses, tubers and roots, and seeds, which may be stored below ground. Insects are eaten when they are available. In winter, prairie voles sometimes eat the bark of woody vegetation.
Animal Foods: insects
Plant Foods: leaves; roots and tubers; wood, bark, or stems; seeds, grains, and nuts
Foraging Behavior: stores or caches food
Primary Diet: herbivore (Folivore )
Prairie voles, Microtus ochrogaster, occur from northeastern New Mexico to northern Alabama, western West Virginia, and northwest to central Alberta.
Biogeographic Regions: nearctic (Native )
Prairie voles are common in prairies, ungrazed pastures, fallow fields, weedy areas, road right-of-ways, and sometimes in soybean or alfalfa fields. If meadow voles occur in the same area, prairie voles occupy the areas with shorter, drier, and more varied vegetation.
Habitat Regions: temperate ; terrestrial
Terrestrial Biomes: savanna or grassland
Other Habitat Features: agricultural
Average longevity is less than 1 year, but prairie voles may live up to 3 years in captivity.
Average lifespan
Status: wild: 1 years.
Range lifespan
Status: captivity: 3 (high) years.
Typical lifespan
Status: captivity: 1 (high) years.
Microtus ochrogaster maintains uniform coloration throughout the year. It has dark brown to black hair tipped with black or brownish-yellow. This gives a grizzled effect to most of the pelage. The ventrum is light tan. The tail is bicolored. Occasionally, color variants with yellow, black, albino or spotted fur may be found.
Prairie voles have five plantar tubercles on the hind feet and females have three pairs of mammary glands. The third lower molar has no closed triangles and three transverse loops. The third upper molar has two closed triangles.
Adults have a total length of 125 to 180 mm, tail length of 25 to 45 mm, hind foot length of 17 to 23 mm, ear length of 10 to 15 mm, and weight between 30 and 70 grams. There is no significant sexual dimorphism in size or coloration.
Range mass: 30 to 70 g.
Range length: 125 to 180 mm.
Sexual Dimorphism: sexes alike
Other Physical Features: endothermic ; bilateral symmetry
Average basal metabolic rate: 0.41 W.
Prairie voles use an extensive runway system comprized of grass tunnels that helps to hide them from predators. Prairie voles are preyed upon by a wide variety of small to medium-sized predators. They are important as a prey base for raptors, owls, snakes, weasels, foxes, and bobcats.
Known Predators:
Anti-predator Adaptations: cryptic
Mating systems in prairie voles vary with season, food availability, and communal social structure. Some male-female pairs are monogamous while other males and females are likely to mate with multiple partners.
Mating System: monogamous ; polygynandrous (promiscuous)
Prairie voles breed throughout the year except during severe winters and summers. The highest levels of reproductive activity occur between May and October, and the lowest levels in December and January.
Gestation lasts 21 days, after which 3 or 4 hairless young are born. Young are altricial at birth, with both eyes and ears closed. Maternal age, size, and time of year have an effect on litter size.
Young develop rapidly. Within 5 days of birth they are able to crawl. They consume solid foods by the age of 12 days. Weaning occurs at 2 to 3 weeks. Young enter their first molt at about 24 days of age.
Females mature at 30 to 40 days and males at 35 to 45 days. Adult size is reached withing 2 months of birth. Young are independent shortly after weaning.
Breeding interval: These animals can produce several litters per year. The maximum is about one litter every month and a half.
Breeding season: Breeding occurs year-round.
Range number of offspring: 3 to 4.
Average gestation period: 21 days.
Range weaning age: 2 to 3 weeks.
Average time to independence: 3 weeks.
Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female): 30 to 45 days.
Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male): 30 to 45 days.
Key Reproductive Features: iteroparous ; year-round breeding ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual ; fertilization ; viviparous
Average birth mass: 3.02 g.
Average gestation period: 23 days.
Average number of offspring: 3.8.
Both males and females care for the young, which are born naked and helpless in a grass-lined nest. The young average 3 grams at birth. Fur appears on the young by the second day, they can crawl by 5 days, begin eating solid food at 12 days, and are weaned between 2 and 3 weeks of age. The young begin to molt into their adult pelage by 24 days and reach their adult size within 2 months of birth.
Parental Investment: altricial ; pre-fertilization (Provisioning, Protecting: Female); pre-hatching/birth (Provisioning: Female, Protecting: Female); pre-weaning/fledging (Provisioning: Female, Protecting: Male, Female)
The prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster) is a small vole found in central North America.
The vole has long, coarse grayish-brown fur on the upper portion of the body and yellowish fur on the lower portion of the body. It has short ears and a short tail, which is somewhat darker on top. Prairie voles rarely live longer than one or two years. Their life expectancy is based on predator presence and natural factors in their area of inheritance.
The prairie vole's scientific name, Microtus ochrogaster, is derived from Latin; the genus name translates to "small ear", and the specific epithet translates to "yellow belly".
They are found in grasslands in the central United States and Canada; ranging from the eastern Rocky Mountains in the west to West Virginia in the east and into the Canadian Prairies to the north.[3]
An isolated relict subspecies was once known from the Western Gulf coastal grasslands in Texas and Louisiana, named the Louisiana vole; it were reportedly abundant in the 1900s, but is now considered extinct, making the prairie vole extirpated from Louisiana.[4][5]
The prairie vole resides in dry fields that contain a cover of grasses and weeds; the largest populations are typically found in fallow fields or hay fields.[6] Prairie voles make shallow burrows and runways through surface vegetation. In winter, they tunnel underneath the snow. Their runways are used for many purposes, from predator protection to obtaining food. Prairie voles are easily disturbed. They will not hesitate to use their burrows if they notice predators close by or disturbances that pose a threat. Compared to the meadow vole, prairie voles prefer to inhabit drier areas.
Prairie voles are active year-round. In colder weather, they tend to be more active during the day; at other times, they are mainly nocturnal. Prairie voles live in colonies and have been known to exhibit human-like social behavior in groups.[7]
The prairie vole is special for having pair bonding with its partner.[8] The male prairie vole has a continuous contact with its female counterpart, which lasts for all of their lives. If the female prairie vole dies, the male does not look for a new partner. Moreover, this constant relationship is more social than sexual. Other species, such as the meadow voles, do not show this pair bonding behavior.[9] This uniqueness in the prairie vole behavior is related to the oxytocin and vasopressin hormones. The oxytocin receptors of the female prairie vole brain are located more densely in the reward system, and have more receptors than other species, which causes 'addiction' to the social behavior.[10][11][12] In the male prairie vole, the gene for the vasopressin receptor has a longer segment, as opposed to the montane vole, which has a smaller segment.[13] Considerable work is needed to determine the extent to which research results from vole models may apply to bonding animals such as humans and non-bonding animals such as chimpanzees.[14]
Prairie voles are primarily herbivorous, feeding on grasses, roots, fruit, seeds and bark and some insects. These voles store food. Predators include coyotes, hawks, owls, foxes and prairie rattlesnakes. They may cause damage to garden plants and small trees.
During mating season, prairie voles take up individual territories and defend them from other voles. They mark their territories with urine and other secretions. They assume a defensive posture towards a competitor or enemy by raising the forefeet, extending the head forward, and chattering of the teeth. Outside the mating seasons, the prairie voles live together.
Like other voles, prairie voles can reproduce at any time of the year, but the main breeding seasons are in the fall and the spring. Unlike other voles, prairie voles are generally monogamous. The prairie vole is a notable animal model for studying monogamous behavior and social bonding because male and female partners form lifelong pair bonds, huddle and groom each other, share nesting and pup-raising responsibilities, and generally show a high level of affiliate behavior. However, they are not sexually faithful, and though pair-bonded females usually show aggression toward unfamiliar males, both sexes will occasionally mate with other voles if the opportunity arises.[15]
The female's gestation period is between 20 and 30 days. Female voles have two to four litters of two to seven young per year in a nest lined with vegetation in a burrow or in a depression on the ground. Litter size varies depending on food availability and the age of the female. The largest number of pregnancies with the highest offspring occur in spring and fall.[6] Vole pups open their eyes at about eight days after birth, and become capable of feeding themselves at about two weeks.
Prairie voles are important to the ecosystem. They provide food for predators, but are considered pests by some. Many ways to prevent voles from destroying gardens or other areas are available. Electric repellers and predators (snakes, owls, coyotes, foxes, domestic animals, and hawks) can be used to reduce vole populations. They can also be scared away by plastic ornaments that resemble natural predators.[16]
Though poison is an option to prevent voles, poisoned voles can create a threat to other animals and humans. Voles are prey for other predators. If they are eaten by predators while poisoned, the poison could harm the predator. In addition, when placing poison near vole entrances, other animals may be able to reach it, making it a hazard to them.[3] Moreover, poison left in the field can easily be blown or washed away. In residential areas, the poison itself and poisoned voles can be harmful and/or dangerous to people and domesticated animals. If a licensed pest control company is involved they can mitigate any poisoning concerns through the use of proper exterior bait stations.[17]
Prairie voles in Missouri have been found to carry Bloodland Lake virus (BLLV), a hantavirus. Hantaviruses are responsible for disease in humans including Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome and Hantavirus hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome. No known human cases of Bloodland Lake virus have been reported.[18]
The prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster) is a small vole found in central North America.
