Meet a Vole (not a mouse)
During one of my short excursions to Slovenian Waterfalls I’ve spotted this tinny beast.
At the first glance, you would probably say that it’s a cute little mouse, but that would be slightly incorrect because this a is Vole.
Guide for noobs is simple: (srb. miši imaju uši) mice have ears.
Evolutionary speaking both voles and mice are members of the same Order, Rodenta.
Now there is a split: mouse and rat belong to Muridae while voles belong to Cricetidae, together with hamsters, lemmings and very strange looking muskat.
They are absolutely not related to other small mammals such as shrews or elephant shrews.
Now, something you can’t find on Wiki:
What is scaring them?
According to this article, voles are very afraid when they scent the smell of weasel, stoat and marten. This is important for understanding of predator-prey interactions.
Are they afraid of forest roads? Nope, they just don’t care…
They also don’t care about the record accumulation of Cs-137 in Chernobyl. It looks like voles prefer to accumulate heavy metal pollutants. Thanks to this feature, voles are suitable and cute indicators of environmental pollution.
The largest and the smallest vole?
The largest vole species is the European Water Vole, Arvicola terrestis, weighing even 350-400 gr.
The smallest vole species is the Creeping Vole, Microtus oregoni, weighing only 19 gr.
Dark side…
Do Girl-Voles prefer tough or gentile Boy-Voles?
Tough, of course… And not only one at the same moment…
However, different levels of vasopressin can turn them into monogamous "marriage material".
Voles also tend to commit infanticide. It sounds terrible, but actually, the smaller size of a litter is more favourable for the overall survival rates.
Those were the highlights of the first 10 pages of Scholar Google.
All photos were made by me, Sony a6000 and SEL55210.
It's a fucking mouse!
Names we give to them are nothing but arbitrary names. Who are we to judge?! :D
He/she is adorable (infanticide notwithstanding). Not afraid of you?
No, not at all. At one moment it actually came to me and decided to explore my shoe for some reason.
:)
So cute! <3
I'm glad you like it
Hello @alexs1320, i have known about mouse and rat before, but am just reading about vole. Thanks for the information.
One of the goals of steemSTEM community is to educate and popularise scientific content. Thank you for your comment :)
Your article have broken my myth that rat and mouse are not same. Moreover i get introduced with a new mouse looking rodents called as vole( looking very cute).
Thanks for sharing...
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