Common vole
Microtus arvalis
Radovan Víta · Doksy
Key facts in one look
- Size
- Body 9–14 cm, up to 45 g
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Status in Georgia
- Native, widespread
- Habitat
- Meadows, pastures, fields, up to 3,000 m
- Family
- Cricetidae
- Conservation
- LC / LC
The common vole (Microtus arvalis) is one of the most numerous rodents: in some years up to 2,000 animals live on a single hectare. It is a small, rounded rodent with a short tail, a blunt muzzle and ears almost hidden in its fur. In Georgia it is widespread, from Tbilisi and Vashlovani to Bakuriani, Akhalkalaki and the Jvari Pass. It damages fields and orchards, and in the South Caucasus it is regarded as the main natural carrier of the plague agent. So do not pick up a wild vole with your hands. Recent classifications often assign the Georgian populations to a separate species, Microtus obscurus.
Identification
Common vole: how to identify it
A small, stocky rodent with a blunt muzzle, small black eyes and short ears that barely show above the fur. The tail is short, about a third of the body length. It is most easily confused with the social vole, which in eastern Georgia often lives in the same places.
The body is 9–14 cm long and usually weighs no more than 45 g. The tail is 30–40% of the body length, up to 49 mm. Females are on average slightly smaller than males.
The back ranges from light brown to greyish brown, sometimes with a rusty tinge. The flanks are more yellowish, the belly grey, sometimes washed whitish or ochre. The tail is one-coloured or faintly two-toned.
The social vole has larger eyes and ears that stick out of the fur, and a yellowish-grey back. Major's pine vole is darker and keeps to wooded places. These species cannot always be told apart by sight, so use a photo to identify them, not your hands.
Colour
Swatches are illustrative. Do not identify a species by colour alone.
Often confused with
It is a rodent of open, grassy ground: meadows, pastures, fields and alpine meadows above the tree line, up to about 3,000 m. It avoids dense forest, but also lives on forest edges, in forest glades and in riverside scrub. In Georgia it has been found in Tbilisi (Mtatsminda, Dighomi, Turtle Lake), near Tsalka and Tetritskaro, in Bakuriani, near Akhalkalaki and Ninotsminda, at Gudauri and the Jvari Pass, in Lagodekhi, Dedoplistskaro and Vashlovani National Park. In the west it reaches the mountains of Shuakhevi municipality.
The common vole map combines public iNaturalist observations. Regions are taken from the records-by-region table, and the status column separates regions with enough records from regions with too few records. Record counts reflect observation effort rather than population density. Records are still too few to mark any region.
Data: Reptiles.ge + iNaturalist · Methodology
- Field observation
- Region with records
It is a herbivore that eats the leaves, stems and roots of grasses and other herbs. More than 80 plants are known from its diet, and it favours daisies and legumes. Depending on the season it also eats seeds, bulbs, tubers, berries and bark, and only rarely insects. In winter it gnaws the bark of shrubs and fruit trees. It stores food in its burrow, sometimes up to 3 kg.
It is active all year and does not hibernate. It lives in family settlements of 1–5 related females and their offspring. Runways trodden through the grass connect the burrows and cover the whole home range like a railway network. It rarely leaves these runways. In winter it builds nests of dry grass under the snow. Breeding runs from spring to autumn, roughly March to November. Gestation lasts 16–24 days, a litter averages 5 young, and a female has 2–4 litters a season. A young female can sometimes conceive when only 13 days old. Average lifespan is just 4.5 months: most animals die in autumn, and the last litters of the year survive the winter.
Globally, the common vole is rated Least Concern (LC, 2024). In Georgia the 2021 national assessment also rates it Least Concern (LC), with a stable population. It adapts easily to farmland and other landscapes changed by people, but avoids heavily developed ground. It is a staple prey of many predators: owls, kestrels, buzzards, weasels, stoats, foxes and wildcats all hunt it.
Related guides
Continue with related pages
Yes, and very widely. It has been found in more than a hundred places, from Tbilisi and Vashlovani to Bakuriani, Akhalkalaki, Gudauri and the Jvari Pass. It lives both in lowland fields and on alpine meadows. Recent classifications often treat these populations as the Altai vole (Microtus obscurus).
It does not attack, but it carries diseases. In the South Caucasus it is regarded as the main natural carrier of the plague agent, and it also carries the agents of tularaemia and leptospirosis. Infection can pass through bites, scratches, urine, droppings or fleas. So do not touch a live or dead vole with bare hands.
The common vole has small eyes and ears almost hidden in the fur, and a brown or greyish-brown back. The social vole has larger eyes, ears that stick out of the fur and a yellowish-grey back. In eastern Georgia the two often live in the same places. To identify one for certain, use a photo and leave the animal alone.
It eats the leaves, stems, roots and seeds of grasses and other herbs, and in winter gnaws the bark of shrubs and fruit trees. It breeds very fast, and in some years up to 2,000 animals gather on a hectare. In such years it damages grain in fields and stacks, and trees in orchards. It also stores food in its burrow, sometimes up to 3 kg.
No, it is not threatened. Globally it is rated Least Concern (LC, 2024), and in Georgia the 2021 national assessment also rates it Least Concern (LC), with a stable population. It is a staple food of many owls and birds of prey, and of weasels, stoats and foxes.
References
What this profile is based on
Species profiles are compiled from peer-reviewed literature and established biodiversity databases, and are reviewed as new taxonomic and conservation data become available.
Prepared by the Reptiles.ge editorial team from the sources listed here.
