Microtus pinetorum

photo credit: www.mnh.si.edu/

ID

  • Small eyes and small ears, which are often hidden by fur
  • Soft, short, dense fur
  • Bright brown or chestnut upperpart with lighter sides and a belly of dusky to silvery gray
  • Five tubercles on the soles of the hind feet (Whitaker)

Distribution

  Credit: Smithsonian Institution

Reproduction

  • Breeding season lasts from early March well into November
  • Gestation lasts for 20 – 24 days producing litters of 1 to 5 young
  • Females can produce one to four litters per year (Whitaker)

Behavior

  • Active day or night, but spends the majority of its time in burrows, only really coming out into open air to move from one burrow to another
  • Usually at least stay beneath leaf litter when moving around (Whitaker)

Food Habits

  • Roots and stems of grasses, fruits, seeds, mast, bark (Whitaker)

Size/Life Cycle

  • Average measurements: 121 mm (total length), 14-37 g (total weight) (Smithsonian)

Predators

  • Most anything, given the rare opportunity (Whitaker)

Habitat

  • Highly variable
  • Deciduous forest in moist, friable soils in which they can burrow easily (Whitaker)