Montane voles favor open grassland and sagebrush meadows rather than the deep forest most Oregon mammals on this list depend on, which fits their concentration in the drier bunchgrass country around the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest and the Blue Mountains’ high plateaus.
Oregon’s 701 records rely almost entirely on GBIF specimen data, just 24 from iNaturalist, a fair reflection of a small burrowing rodent that rarely turns up in a photograph. Records show two peaks, May and a sharper one in July, likely tracking breeding-season movement above ground before this species’ population, like many voles, cycles through boom-and-bust years driven more by food and predation than by any single season. NatureServe ranks it S5, secure, in Oregon.
Full species profile
