Montana Field Guide

Sagebrush Vole - Lemmiscus curtatus

A medium-sized vole under an ounce in weight, the sagebrush vole measures between 4 1/4 and 5 5/8 inches, including its furry, dusky- and white-colored tail. It has thick, pale gray fur, darker above, whitish, silvery, or buffy below. Some individuals may have touches of buff color on their ears or noses (Zeveloff 1988). The feet are white to light gray, thickly covered with fur, with the hind feet being equivalent in length to the short tail (Foresman 2001).

Montana Range

Non-migratory.

Sagebrush flats (Lampe et al. 1974) - associated w/ Artemisia sp. partic. Artemisia tridentata (Hoffmann and Pattie 1968). Also may be found in denser vegetation; constructs poorly defined runways. May use dry cattle chips for temporary shelter (Jones et al. 1983).

Leaves, stems, flowers or immature fruits of grasses and forbs. Sagebrush and rabbit brush leaves, inner bark of shrubs in winter and even undigested plant residues in cattle chips when other foods are scarce (Jones et al. 1983).

Mobile colonies - occupies deep snow cover areas in winter, S slopes in spring, lower elevations in summer. Highly developed hearing. Not active in strong winds. Numerous predators (Jones et al. 1983).

Females and males mature at 1-2 mo.s age. Litter size may Be correlated w/ precip. - available vegetation. Young are altricial at birth - weaned at about 18 days of age.