NATURAL HISTORY OF THE
PRAIRIE VOLE
(Mammalian Genus Microtus)

BY

E. W. JAMESON, Jr.


University of Kansas Publications
Museum of Natural History

Volume 1, No. 7, pp. 125-151
October 6, 1947


UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
LAWRENCE
1947

University of Kansas Publications, Museum of Natural History

Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman; Donald S. Farner, H. H. Lane,
Edward H. Taylor

Volume 1, No. 7, pp. 125-151
October 6, 1947


University of Kansas
Lawrence, Kansas


PRINTED BY
FERD VOILAND, JR., STATE PRINTER
TOPEKA, KANSAS
1947

21-6957

Natural History of the Prairie Vole
(Mammalian Genus Microtus)

By
E. W. JAMESON, JR.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

The prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster) at Lawrence, Kansas, is approximately 5-1/2 inches in length, of which the tail comprises 1-1/4 inches, and weighs approximately 1-1/2 ounces. The color on the dorsum is dark gray with a grizzled appearance from the mixture of black and fulvous on the long hairs; the venter is paler, sometimes pale fulvous or cinnamon. The animal is compactly built much as are the other microtine rodents. The short legs and short tail, small eyes and partly hidden ears, and heavy and flattened head all suggest its semifossorial mode of life. The prairie vole spends most of its time in an elaborate system of tunnels (some entirely below the ground) and in almost hidden galleries in the dense grass.

Microtus ochrogaster can be separated from other voles in its geographic range by a combination of several characters. The plantar tubercles usually number five, although a few individuals with six tubercles were found at Lawrence, Kansas. Microtus pennsylvanicus, normally with six plantar tubercles, as Bole and Moulthrop (1942:156) pointed out, sometimes has only five. Therefore, the number of plantar tubercles alone is not a certain means for separating pennsylvanicus from