A lot of us on this site tend to focus our interests on furbearers. After all, it is a trapping site. To me, it's good to give a little attention to the small mammals (mice, voles, etc.). Without them in abundance, we wouldn't have the foxes or the marten or the lynx. Most of the furbearers that we target (with the notable exception of muskrats and beaver and their like) rely mostly on these small mammals for their livelihood. Without them in the food chain, we'd not have many furbearers.

In interior Alaska, there are several species of voles that provide food for the predators. The red-backed vole is the most important for most species.



Every now and then, I catch a weird one. This is an albino red-backed vole.



Shrews, 4 species of them, are quite common, although they don't make up very much of the diet of furbearers.




I used "museum special" snaptraps to monitor small mammal populations to try to predict furbearer abundance. This is a picture of a northern bog lemming.

Thanks for this Gulo.
Always interesting to see the pictures, but especially so to see the scientific method in action.

I am trying to plan a "index fishing" survey with my cub scout group this year... more because I am interested in doing it than anything LOL.

How interesting, Jack. I have wondered at times, of a thread such as this. The wee varmints. And so here it is.

I have always wondered if the voles here are similar to lemmings. Sure like that albino. I almost thought it was a small ermine at first.

Here are some of my varmint shares.

From what I've seen, there are places in any certain area where voles are more numerous. Less numerous in other areas. How successful have you been in correlating vole number to furbearer abundance, Gulo?

Rootok Island had voles on it when I was on it. They were thick. At mid to lower elevations there were trails every where. There was enough you could catch them by hand. You would see them every day. We never once saw evidence of the fox eating them. From what we could see the fox spent most of their time scavenging the beaches looking for something that washed up. The fox also ate a lot of shell fish off the rocks when the tide was out. Rootok was the only island I was on with voles out of 24 islands. I was on 5 island within 35 miles of Rootok and none of them had voles. I would guess the voles came in on a ship. It may have been a wood sail ship that brought the fox from Russia or dropping off trappers after the fox populated.

The grub at the tide line likely had a higher fat content than the voles. Easier to catch too

white17 That could very well be the main reasons. I have no idea how many fox pair they released on each island. I would guess the size of the island played into that. But I am pretty sure at the point I was there, the fox were inbred pretty bad. They may not have been smarter than the voles.

LOL )))))))))

Good info.
What did you bait the voles and shrews with Gulo.
Some years when I whack a marten box to clear the snow a bunch of tiny shrews will scurry out.
They can make a fist size chunk of frozen beaver meat completely disappear in a few days when their numbers are high.

I hate bog lemmings because you have to look at the incisor teeth to tell Southern from Northern species. And when dealing with live ones those incisors do puncture your fingers holding them.
They sure are magnets for picking up the first two stages of woodticks to look over. I thing the highest count I had was 80 nymphs and larvae per animal.

SlydogX have them dig in some cans about the size of a tomato can level with the ground and bait it as a pit fall and place a cardboard top over it......catch and release method. Worked with a Scout group but I had tomahalk live traps they got to set and watch the next day me collect fleas and ticks off them. One of the parent was quite interested and 6 months later was called into his office at the Legislator , he was now the Minister of Health, his aid said when I was leaving it was the longest interview he had ever had.

That's some amazing stuff Tatiana !! Thank you !

How do your sable gain access to the pine seeds ? Are they loose on the ground or do they have to take the cones apart ?

Love the details into more details, Tatiana. Like art. The world of detailed focus makes for even more appreciation of the close-knit beauty of everything in timing.

So to understand marten, even pine nuts becomes a connected interest .

Just like trees. I love trees, especially conifers. To see how elevation changes the types in my mountains, I am thrilled every time I notice it.

Jack pleasantly surprised me of his immense diversity of knowledge, the first time I met him . He was in the parking lot when I drove in , ready to take his wuff class instruction in N. Idaho. He met me with a big smile, looked around me and one of the first things he said, about my wood bumper I made and had put on my truck , " Doug Fir ? " I laughed. He nailed it exactly.

And so began our unique , enjoyed friendship.

I too, would love Wistar rats , over Duncan, angry rats for company

Many thanks Tatiana. Very interesting stuff for sure.

Our marten spend a lot of time under the snow in January....provided there is enough snow.

Your description of the inexperienced juveniles moving down slope into the valleys makes me think of the "wave" we sometimes see here. We have all scratched our heads wondering what triggers it. No solution.
In your case weather seems to be the prime mover but the practice of adults not teaching young of the year to hunt an alternative meal seems like a short-circuit waiting to happen. It doesn't seem at all conducive to the continuation of the species ..........at least on a localized level

Tatiana,
We do have water voles here in W WA. Not sure about elsewhere. I have caught a few. They look like a miniature muskrat but with a round tail.