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The bank vole is primarily a herbivore. Its diet varies with the season but usually consists of leaves, grasses, roots, buds, bark, fruits, nuts, grain and seeds. When feeding on grass stalks it may clip the stalks and lay the cut pieces in piles. Some food is carried back to the burrow where it is kept in dedicated storage chambers.
Voles outwardly resemble several other small animals. Moles, gophers, mice, rats and even shrews have similar characteristics and behavioral tendencies. Voles thrive on small plants yet, like shrews, they will eat dead animals and, like mice and rats, they can live on almost any nut or fruit. In addition, voles target plants more than most ...
On the Cape Verde Islands, geckos are the mainstay of the diet, supplemented by birds such as plovers, godwits, turnstones, weavers and pratincoles. [23] In Ireland, the accidental introduction of the bank vole in the 1950s led to a major shift in the barn owl's diet: where their ranges overlap, the vole is now by far the largest prey item. [24]
In western Switzerland, the diet was similar but far more homogeneous, with Apodemus species at 74.3% and bank vole at 18.7% among 10,176 prey items. [ 63 ] The northernmost food study for tawny owls thus far conducted showed that in Sweden , field voles were the main food amongst 578 prey items, at 30.5%, with bank voles being supplemental at ...
The short-tailed field vole is a small, dark brown rodent with a short tail, distinguishable from the closely related common vole (Microtus arvalis) by its darker, longer and shaggier hair and by its more densely haired ears. The head and body length varies between 8 and 13 centimetres (3.1 and 5.1 in) and the tail between 3 and 4 centimetres ...
The broadest study found that of 1268 prey items, 45.9% of the diet was voles, particularly the bank vole (38.1% by number, 26.24% by biomass), with another 34.2% made up of by Apodemus species (as well as 28.2% of the biomass) and a large portion of dormice, especially the large edible dormouse (Glis glis), at 6% by number and 25.5% by biomass ...
The most convenient distinguishing feature of the Arvicolinae is the nature of their molar teeth, which have prismatic cusps in the shape of alternating triangles. These molars are an adaptation to a herbivorous diet in which the major food plants include a large proportion of abrasive materials such as phytoliths; the teeth get worn down by abrasion throughout the adult life of the animal and ...
Eastern meadow voles eat most available species of grasses, sedges, and forbs, including many agricultural plant species. [5] [9] In summer and fall, grasses are cut into match-length sections to reach the succulent portions of the leaves and seedheads. Leaves, flowers, and fruits of forbs are also typical components of the summer diet.