North Dakota’s 66 records split into two clusters on opposite sides of the state. Dunn County in the west leads with 26, while Grand Forks and Walsh counties along the Red River Valley in the east hold 13 apiece. Turtle River State Park, west of Grand Forks, is the single busiest named site with 12 records. In a plains state, a forest-floor vole lives where the trees are: wooded river corridors, shady draws, and the timbered hills that break up the open country.
A July crest in a summer survey season
A third of the state’s records, 33 of 66, were logged in July, with June adding 10. That kind of peak says as much about trap lines as about voles: summer is when small mammals are most numerous and when field crews work. Still, reports appear in nine different months, including February, November, and December, which fits an animal that stays active under snow through a North Dakota winter.
Present, but not yet graded
NatureServe lists the species as unranked (SNR) in North Dakota, so its standing here hasn’t been formally assessed. The record clusters at Turtle River’s riverside woods and in Dunn County’s broken country mark confirmed presence at the prairie edge of a mostly northern, forest-centered range. The wetland refuges often associated with good wildlife habitat in the state, J. Clark Salyer, Long Lake, and Chase Lake, hold marsh and grassland more than the deep-woods floor this vole prefers, and none has produced a confirmed record.
Full species profile
