Washington’s 1,522 creeping vole records run through the conifer forests of the state’s west side and Cascade flank, with Clark and Skamania counties far out front and Clallam County marking the Olympic Peninsula. The state’s Department of Natural Resources management lands account for the largest single block of records, and Olympic and Mount Rainier national parks both appear, a map of deep duff and rotting logs rather than open ground.
A forest-floor specialist that hunts truffles
Most voles eat grass. The creeping vole eats the forest itself. It is one of the small mammals most dependent on truffles and other underground fungi, digging them up by smell and spreading their spores through the woods in its droppings, a quiet service that helps conifer seedlings take up nutrients. Small, short-tailed, and soft-furred, it lives under leaf litter and decaying wood in moist conifer forest from the coast to the high mountains.
Present all year, hardest to find in winter
Creeping voles stay active through every season, tunneling beneath the litter and winter snow rather than hibernating. Washington’s counts climb steeply from June to an August crest, matching the months when young animals disperse and foraging runs at its peak, then drop away as the animals settle back under the duff for the cold, wet season.
Status in Washington
NatureServe ranks the creeping vole S4, Apparently Secure, in Washington, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
Full species profile
