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Voles for the D.B.Sullivan prairie

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We don't have plans for any Bison but perhaps some smaller
grazing
animals might be appropriate.  Would sheep be good?  We
don't have
fences now so that could be a big expense.  Do you have to
break the
prairie up with fences to control the grazing?
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It's great to hear that you're starting up a prairie
restoration.  If you're starting from an old field
situation, my guess is that you don't need to bring in any
mammals for your prairie--you probably have them in place
already!  Microtus pennsylvanicus, the meadow vole, or it's
cousin M. ochrogaster, the prairie vole, both like
grasslands, and are native to prairies.  They are an
important link in the food chain, being primary consumers,
and are food to carnivores such as red-tailed hawks, several
owls, weasels, minks, foxes, and coyotes.

I believe that voles are the best herbivorous mammals you
can have in a small prairie (although I must confess that
I'm biased in my opinion, as they are some of my favorite
animals).  Being small, they require far less space than
bison.  Their numbers are controlled by those charasmatic
critters I mentioned above.  When food is plentiful, they
reproduce very well.  Thus, they're sort of "automatically
self-adjusting" to the prairie restoration.  Big animals
such as bison or sheep would have to be penned in, and would
quickly overgraze all of your carefully planned prairie.

How do you get such wonderful animals?  Easy.  If you've
seen the Kevin Costner movie, "Field of Dreams", you already
know--build it and they'll come.  They're probably present
in your old field right now, but at low numbers.  Plant your
prairie and they'll come.  They're as natural part of the
prairie as any flower or grass.  No prairie restoration is
complete without voles.

Chris Kodani
Vole Ecologist
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