The sagebrush vole rarely strays far from the shrubs it’s named for, with a chunky, short-tailed build that fits a life spent moving through low cover rather than open ground. Wyoming has only 112 records of it, the thinnest count in this group of small mammals, which likely says more about how easily this species hides than about how uncommon it actually is; NatureServe still rates it S4, Apparently Secure, statewide.
Records nearest to Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton National Park, and the Bridger-Teton National Forest come from the sagebrush flats and low shrublands within those broader landscapes rather than the forested high country itself, since dense sagebrush is what this species actually needs. July holds the largest share of sightings at 46 of the 112 records, but with counts this small, that summer bump is easily explained by when surveyors were out looking rather than any dramatic shift in the vole’s own habits. Only one record came through iNaturalist, so nearly everything known about this species in Wyoming traces back to trapping data, not photographs.
Full species profile
