What sort of mouse is this? (1 Viewer)

[Gaz Shilton]

Caught this this evening in the fading light at the bottom of our garden. What sort of mouse is it please?

 

[gthang]

I don't think it's a mouse, looks like a vole or something.

 

[Michael Frankis]

Yep, Gthang's right - Short-tailed Field Vole (Microtus agrestis). Common, but not an easy one to see so well in the open, so well caught!

Michael

 

[gthang]

The reason: The picture shows a stub-nosed rodent; mice, and rats have pointy snouts, and the rodent in the picture could not be a mouse or a rat. moles frequently live underground, and most are pointy-snouted as well. Squirrels are sort of stub-nosed, but the picture is definitely not a squirrel. other rodents, like guinea pigs and hamsters, are often kept as pets, so it would have been kind of obvious if the picture was one of those. The only other rodent that came to mind was a vole. And I remember (very vaguely) that voles live in fields and have stubby snouts.

 

[scampo]

Reminded me of those lovely water voles that were once a daily sight (when I was a boy) in nearby streams.