As I was walking to the barn, I heard the loud squeak of a
shrew from a nearby area of tall grass.
It’s not unusual to hear shrews in the grass, but you normally hear two
instead of just a loner. I peered down
into the grass to see if I could get a look at the shrew. Instead, I caught a glimpse of a Meadow Vole
zipping through the grass with a vole baby in her mouth. Then I found the rounded mound of grass that
was her nest.
Inside the nest were five babies. I can’t prove it, but I believe the shrew
found the nest and made off with one of the babies. The squeak was probably the shrew’s reaction
to a confrontation with Mama vole. The
female vole’s response to a nest violation by a predator is to relocate the
young to another nest. A normal litter
contains six or seven young, so this nest probably began with seven. That’s one for the shrew, one carried off by
the mother and five waiting their turn to relocate.
This little guy will one day be a grass eater, but now it’s
still dependent upon its mother’s milk.
That’ll change rapidly. Meadow
Voles are weaned when 12 days old.
Females begin breeding at the age of 25 days. The mother vole mates immediately after
giving birth, so her next litter is developing while she’s nursing the current
brood. A gestation period of 21 days
means that she can give birth about every three weeks.
These young voles are destined to die in the teeth, claws,
beak or belly of some predator. Voles
are just active little packets of food.
They are the primary food of a multitude of mammals, birds, reptiles and
even fish. Meadow Vole breeding goes on
year-round, so it’s fortunate that so many creatures find this animal
appetizing.
I covered the nest and went on my way. When I checked back a few hours later, the
nest was empty. Litter relocation is a fairly rapid business, so I assume that
these little guys are now off in a new nest.
