Sagebrush voles break the usual vole pattern: instead of damp grassy runways, they live in dry sagebrush steppe, digging their own short burrows rather than relying on the runway systems other voles build through thick vegetation. The Missouri River Breaks country gives this species some of its best Montana habitat, sagebrush flats far drier than the mountain forest most of the state’s small mammals depend on.
Records show three separate bumps, May, July, and September, rather than one clean peak, a pattern that likely tracks scattered trapping-survey timing more than a true seasonal cycle, since this species stays active through Montana’s cold months rather than hibernating. NatureServe rates it S4, apparently secure, statewide.
Full species profile
