Re: [SG] Biology Lesson

At 02:54 PM 3/25/99 -0500, you wrote:
>To set the record straight and (it is hoped) avoid any more confusion:
>(NOTE--in Biology, Order comes first, then family, then genus, then
>species, then variety--just like with plants.)
>
>Moles along with shrews are in the order Insectivora (because they eat
>insects) and taxonomically they come between opossoms and bats.
>Relationship-wise, they are FAR removed from voles and mice. If you
>look them up in a mammal book you will see that moles are larger and have
>big heads, with eyes and ears concealed in the fur, and enormous paddle
>shaped front legs with claws that they use for digging. They are rarely
>seen and their presence is usually detected by molehills. Other than
>making molehills, which lawn fanatics dislike, I believe they do more good
>than harm, by eating lots of Japanese beetle grubs. This is just as well,
>as it's practically impossible to get rid of them.
>
>Voles and mice (they are very closely related) are in the order Rodentia,
>along with chipmunks and squirrels. Voles and mice are in the same family,
>which is Cricetidae. Their main food is vegetable matter of various kinds,
>including seeds and roots. If you look at a vole, or a picture of a vole,
>it is the size of a mouse but has smaller ears and is overall a bit cuter.
>Frances recently referred to them as "strange"--I wonder if she is
>describing some other animal, as voles are actually adorable, looking like
>something drawn by Beatrix Potter. Fur color tends to be a rather pretty
>dark gray or grayish brown. I have read somewhere that a vole is the same
>thing as a field mouse--two different names for the same creature--but
>that may be an oversimplification. Voles are seen fairly often, in my
>neighborhood, at all times of the day. They come indoors especially in
>fall when the weather gets cold and occasionally the rest of the year,
>where they serve as new live (but temporary) toys for my indoor cats, who
>find them in the basement. Aside from hawks and owls (rare in our
>neighborhood), cats (dogs too) are their main predator.
>
>Everyone knows what a chipmunk looks like, surely? If not, it resembles a
>small squirrel, with stripes on its back. They dig little tunnels and do
>sometimes climb trees as well. It is interesting how ignorant many of us
>are about the creatures who share our world, no offense. A man who was
>painting our house once told us that, regrettably, he had bad news for
>us--we had rats. "There's one now," he said, pointing as it ran by. It was
>a chipmunk! I met a lady last week who didn't know what a mammal was.  And
>one of my pet peeves is how people automatically kill bats or snakes,
>which are some of the most valuable predators we have--but that's another
>story.
>
>End of lecture.
>
>Bobbi Diehl
>Bloomington, IN
>zone 5/6

Excellent post, Bobbi.  I live in southwest Idaho, and our voles are about
twice the length of mice, although short-legged and sufficiently short of
tail to avoid being mistaken for a rat.  I think Audubon called them Oregon
meadow mice.  They have been known to bring down haystacks by feeding on
the key bale.  In my garden, I've pulled carrots only to find the healthy
tops were connected to a hollow skin of a carrot underground.  Same thing
with taters.  They'll take a bite out of each cucumber and each canteloupe.
 And the day I tried to pick the most beautiful eggplant in the world only
to find that it was a hollow bell of an eggplant...the eggplant hung to the
ground, and the vole calculatedly burrowed along underground and came up
under the eggplant, where he could feast away, unseen by dog or human.
They prefer sunny locations, but will use shade if that's where the food or
cover is. So far they've been a terrific nuisance in the veggie garden, but
haven't bothered my hostas.  Margaret L
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