WILDLIFE DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
WILDLIFE SPECIES: Microtus pennsylvanicus | Meadow Vole 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION : 
The meadow vole has the widest distribution of any North American
species of Microtus.  It ranges from Labrador west to Alaska and south
from Labrador and New Brunswick to South Carolina and extreme
northeastern Georgia; east through Tennessee, Missouri, north-central
Nebraska, the northern half of Wyoming, and central Washington to
Alaska; south through Idaho into north-central Utah.  It is excluded
only from the extreme polar regions.  A disjunct subset of its range
occurs from central Colorado to northwestern New Mexico [2,48].


ECOSYSTEMS : 
FRES10 White-red-jack pine
FRES11 Spruce-fir
FRES14 Oak-pine
FRES15 Oak-hickory
FRES17 Elm-ash-cottonwood
FRES18 Maple-beech-birch
FRES19 Aspen-birch
FRES20 Douglas-fir
FRES21 Ponderosa pine
FRES22 Western white pine
FRES23 Fir-spruce
FRES24 Hemlock-Sitka spruce
FRES25 Larch
FRES26 Lodgepole pine
FRES36 Mountain grasslands
FRES37 Mountain meadows
FRES38 Plains grasslands
FRES39 Prairie
FRES41 Wet grasslands


STATES : 


    
AK
    
CO
    
CT
    
DE
    
GA
    
ID
    
IL
    
IN
    
IA
    
KY


    
ME
    
MD
    
MA
    
MI
    
MN
    
MS
    
MO
    
MT
    
NE
    
NH


    
NJ
    
NM
    
NY
    
NC
    
ND
    
OH
    
OK
    
OR
    
PA
    
RI


    
SC
    
SD
    
TN
    
UT
    
VT
    
VA
    
WA
    
WV
    
WI
    
WY






    
AB
    
BC
    
MB
    
NB
    
NF
    
NT
    
NS
    
ON
    
PE
    
PQ


    
SK
    
YK
    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    





BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS : 
    1  Northern Pacific Border
    2  Cascade Mountains
    5  Columbia Plateau
    6  Upper Basin and Range
    8  Northern Rocky Mountains
    9  Middle Rocky Mountains
   10  Wyoming Basin
   11  Southern Rocky Mountains
   14  Great Plains
   15  Black Hills Uplift
   16  Upper Missouri Basin and Broken Lands


KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS : 
   K047  Fescue-oatgrass
   K050  Fescue-wheatgrass
   K051  Wheatgrass-bluegrass
   K063  Foothills prairie
   K069  Bluestem-grama prairie
   K070  Sandsage-bluestem prairie
   K073  Northern cordgrass prairie
   K074  Bluestem prairie
   K075  Nebraska Sandhills prairie
   K083  Cedar glades
   K088  Fayette prairie


SAF COVER TYPES : 
NO-ENTRY


SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES : 
   101  Bluebunch wheatgrass
   102  Idaho fescue
   103  Green fescue
   301  Bluebunch wheatgrass-blue grama
   302  Bluebunch wheatgrass-Sandberg bluegrass
   303  Bluebunch wheatgrass-western wheatgrass
   304  Idaho fescue-bluebunch wheatgrass
   305  Idaho fescue-Richardson needlegrass
   306  Idaho fescue-slender wheatgrass
   307  Idaho fescue-threadleaf sedge
   309  Idaho fescue-western wheatgrass
   311  Rough fescue-bluebunch wheatgrass
   312  Rough fescue-Idaho fescue
   601  Bluestem prairie
   602  Bluestem-prairie sandreed
   603  Prairie sandreed-needlegrass
   604  Bluestem-grama prairie
   606  Wheatgrass-bluestem-needlegrass
   608  Wheatgrass-grama-needlegrass
   609  Wheatgrass-grama
   610  Wheatgrass
   611  Blue grama-buffalograss
   709  Bluestem-grama
   710  Bluestem prairie
   802  Missouri prairie


PLANT COMMUNITIES : 
Meadow voles are most commonly found in grasslands, preferring moister
areas, but are also found in wooded areas [48].

In eastern Washington and northern Idaho meadow voles are found in
relative abundance in sedge (Carex spp.) fens but not in adjacent cedar
(Thuja spp.)-hemlock (Tsuga spp.), Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii),
or ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests.  Meadow voles are also
absent from fescue (Festuca spp.)-snowberry (Symphoricarpos spp.)
associations.  It was speculated that moisture is a major factor in
habitat use; possibly the presence of free water is a deciding factor.
In southeastern Montana meadow voles were the second most abundant small
mammal (after deer mice [Peromyscus maniculatus]) in riparian areas
within big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata)-buffalo grass (Buchloe
dactyloides) habitats [40].  Meadow voles are listed as
riparian-dependent vertebrates in the Snake River drainage of Wyoming
[52].  Raphael [47] compiled 11 studies on small mammals; meadow voles
were reported in only 3 of 29 sites in subalpine forests of the central
Rocky Mountains.  Davis [12] suggested in 1939 that meadow vole range
extensions were likely to be related to irrigation practices.  Meadow
voles are now common in hayfields, pastures, and along ditches in the
Rocky Mountain states [30].

In Pipestone National Monument, Minnesota, meadow voles were present in
riparian shrublands, tallgrass prairie, and other habitats [57].  In
east-central Ohio meadow voles were captured in reconstructed common
cattail (Typha latifolia) wetlands [37].  In Virginia meadow voles were
least abundant in eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana) glades and
most abundant in fields with dense grass cover [38].


REFERENCES : 
NO-ENTRY

Related categories for Wildlife Species: Microtus pennsylvanicus | Meadow Vole