Common name: Field vole, short-tailed vole or field mouse.
Scientific name: Microtus agrestis
Family: Cricetidae in the order Rodentia
Description: Length: 8-13cm, tail less than 40% of total length, weight: 20-50g; grey-brown fur above, creamy-grey fur below with furry ears and tail.
Habitat: grassland, field voles are present in every one of our fields in extensive communal burrows.
Nutrition: eats seeds, roots and leaves but is eaten by most things: kestrel, owls, weasels, stoat, fox….
Origin: native
Conservation status: population estimated at 75million, the UK’s most common mammal; numbers can fluctuate widely over 3 to 4-year cycles.
DYK: the average field vole life span is only 1 year but during that year a female can have between three and six litters of up to seven pups each.
Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 