Wildlife
Bank vole
Bank voles are active during the night and day, but the small brown mammals frequently rest to preserve their energy. They make nests under logs, amongst tree roots, in tree holes or underground. In the autumn, they sometimes store food for times of scarcity in the winter.
Bank voles range across Europe (except for the extreme north or south) and east into central Asia. They are found throughout Britain, and were accidentally introduced to the south west of Ireland in the 1950s. A supersized variety of the species arrived on Skomer Island, southwest Wales, hundreds of years ago and is twice as big as the mainland bank vole.
Scientific name: Myodes glareolus
Rank: Species
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Underground living
Frozen Planet
The snow provides perfect protection for voles hiding from predators.
The snow provides perfect protection for voles hiding from predators.
The Skomer island vole
Springwatch
A mammal whose entire population live within one square mile.
Iolo Williams meets a mammal whose entire population live on a Welsh island, just one mile square.
Distribution
The Bank vole can be found in a number of locations including: Asia, Europe, United Kingdom, Wales. Find out more about these places and what else lives there.
Habitats
The following habitats are found across the Bank vole distribution range. Find out more about these environments, what it takes to live there and what else inhabits them.
Oak wood
Farmland
Brownfield land
Chalk grassland
Beech wood
Heathland
Hedgerows
Marsh
Wildflower meadow
Moorland
Parkland
Broadleaf forest
Coniferous forest
Temperate grassland
UrbanBehaviours
Discover what these behaviours are and how different plants and animals use them.
Helpless young
Hierarchical
Burrower
Tactile sense
Acoustic communication
Herbivorous
Food storage
Maternal care
Polygynandrous
Polygynous
Adapted to running
Chemical communication
Territorial
ViviparousAdditional data source: Animal Diversity Web
About
The bank vole (Myodes glareolus; formerly Clethrionomys glareolus) is a small vole with red-brown fur and some grey patches, with a tail about half as long as its body. A rodent, it lives in woodland areas and is around 100 millimetres (3.9 in) in length. The bank vole is found in western Europe and northern Asia. It is native to Great Britain but not to Ireland, where it has been accidentally introduced, and has now colonised much of the south and southwest; concerns have recently been expressed that it may be replacing the native wood mouse.
The bank vole lives in woodland, hedgerows and other dense vegetation such as bracken and bramble. Its underground chamber is lined with moss, feathers and vegetable fibre and contains a store of food. It can live for 18 months and is omnivorous, eating insects, leaves and fruits such as raspberries and hazel nuts. It readily climbs into scrub and low branches of trees.
In areas such as Great Britain, where the only other small vole is the short-tailed vole (Microtus agrestis), the bank vole is distinguished by its more prominent ears, chestnut-brown fur and longer tail.
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Classification
- Life
- Animals
- Vertebrates
- Mammals
- Rodents
- New World rats and mice
- Myodes
- Bank vole
Elsewhere on the web
- Animal Diversity Web (animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu)
- ARKive: Images of Life on Earth (arkive.org)
- bank vole fact sheet (mammal.org.uk)
- More information on the bank vole (the-piedpiper.co.uk)
- Myodes glareolus (wikipedia.org)
bbc.co.uk navigation
BBC links
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