Alaska’s few western meadow vole reports come from the Matanuska-Susitna Valley in Southcentral, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve in the Interior, and the Brooks Range, a spread that tracks wet meadow and sedge marsh habitat rather than any single region. The species favors damp ground near mixed conifer and subalpine forest, wet sedge meadows, and grassy stream edges, wherever dense cover lets it move unseen.
Winter doesn’t stop it. Under the snowpack, western meadow voles travel through subnivean tunnels, clipping stems and chewing bark while staying hidden from most aerial predators. Grasses, sedges, forbs, and stored seeds carry it through the year, and fast, repeated breeding in the warm months helps offset heavy losses to foxes, hawks, and other predators.
Alaska records for this species are sparse, but that reflects how little survey effort has covered its wet meadow habitat rather than genuine scarcity on the ground. Reports concentrate from June through August, when snow-free ground makes both the vole and its habitat easier to find.
Full species profile
