Voles are small, stout-bodied rodents often mistaken for common mice, but their short tails and rounded snouts distinguish them. This common misidentification extends to their feeding habits, leading to frequent questions about their dietary classification. The belief that these animals are carnivores is inaccurate; their diet is more complex than a simple glance might suggest. This exploration will categorize the vole’s diet and explain why its opportunistic nature sometimes leads to misinterpretation.
Vole Classification and Diet Type
Voles belong to the scientific order Rodentia and are classified into the subfamily Arvicolinae, alongside lemmings and muskrats. Animals are broadly categorized by their primary food source: herbivores eat plants, carnivores consume meat, and omnivores eat both. Voles are fundamentally grazing rodents, placing them firmly in the herbivore camp. They possess physiological features adapted for digesting tough plant matter, including specialized digestive tracts designed to ferment fibrous foliage. While classified as herbivores, many species exhibit tendencies that cause them to be labeled as facultative omnivores, consuming animal protein when available, but not depending on it for survival.
The Predominantly Herbivorous Menu
The vast majority of the vole’s daily caloric intake comes directly from plant sources, consistent with their physical adaptations. They feed heavily on the soft basal parts of grasses and various forbs, often consuming their own body weight in fresh foliage daily. Their diet also includes subterranean resources like roots, tubers, and bulbs, which they access through their burrow systems. Specific plant types consumed vary significantly by season and location, though some species, like the tundra vole, prefer forbs over grasses.
Their specialized dentition clearly indicates this herbivorous lifestyle. Voles possess a single pair of incisors in both the upper and lower jaws that grow continuously, a characteristic feature of all rodents. These incisors are used for gnawing through hard materials, such as the bark of small trees and shrubs, especially when green vegetation is scarce in winter. Their back molars are high-crowned with complex, angular cusps, creating effective grinding surfaces to process the abrasive cellulose found in grass and other tough plants. This dental structure is functionally similar to the teeth of large grazing animals, illustrating an evolutionary path toward a grass-based diet.
Why Voles Are Sometimes Confused With Carnivores
The confusion about the vole’s diet stems from its opportunistic foraging behavior, particularly when food resources are limited. Although primarily grazing herbivores, voles occasionally consume small amounts of animal matter. This secondary diet can include insects, snails, and other invertebrates found while foraging. The consumption of these items provides a quick source of protein, which is often lacking in a purely plant-based diet.
Voles may also scavenge on carrion, eating the remains of small, dead animals they encounter. Under conditions of extreme stress, such as overcrowding or severe food scarcity, some voles have been known to engage in cannibalism, preying on the young of their own or other small mammal species.
This sporadic consumption of animal matter does not define them as carnivores, which are physiologically adapted to hunt and digest meat as a fundamental part of their survival. True carnivores, such as weasels or shrews, rely on animal protein for their metabolic needs. The vole’s occasional consumption of insects or carrion is simply a nutritional supplement to their main menu of grasses and roots.