Michigan’s meadow vole records concentrate across the southern Lower Peninsula’s glacial plains, the flat, lake-and-farmland country left behind by retreating ice sheets. Open databases hold 993 Michigan records, and all but a handful come from trapping surveys rather than photographs, since it’s rarely out in the open long enough for a camera to catch it.
Grass runways across old fields and wet meadow
A meadow vole builds a maze of surface runways through thick grass and sedge, chewing paths that stay hidden from anything overhead. Southern Michigan’s glacial till holds water close to the surface, keeping the wet meadows, ditches, and old fields around Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge, Waterloo State Recreation Area, and the Huron-Manistee National Forests thick enough with cover for a vole to move through without crossing open ground.
A vole that breeds through the warm months
Meadow voles feed on grasses, sedges, and seeds, and they breed almost continuously once the growing season starts, producing several litters between spring and fall. Michigan’s records dip to their lowest in February, climb to a peak in August, and stay elevated into October before tapering off as winter sets in, tracking that same warm-season rhythm.
Status in Michigan
NatureServe ranks the meadow vole S5, secure, in Michigan, and it’s native to the state. It’s tied closely to whatever grassy, damp ground the state’s glacial landscape keeps producing, from drained farm fields to protected wetlands like Shiawassee.
