Indiana mammals

Western Meadow Vole in Indiana

Microtus drummondii

Native to Indiana SNR Unranked in Indiana

Not listed as nonindigenous in Indiana by USGS NAS; native to its Indiana range.

IUCN Red List status

NE – Not Evaluated

Not yet assessed against IUCN Red List criteria.

Western Meadow Vole in Indiana, by the numbers

Occasional in Indiana 27th most recorded of 49 mammals logged in Indiana

44 occurrence records
44 with iNaturalist photos

Records from 2000–2026.

When to look for the Western Meadow Vole in Indiana

Most sightings fall in September to October.

44 Indiana occurrence records (iNaturalist and GBIF) by month of year, 2000–2026. Shows when the species is recorded, not a guarantee of presence.

Monthly Indiana records (table)
MonthRecords
January0
February3
March6
April6
May3
June2
July2
August4
September7
October8
November2
December1

Monthly western meadow vole occurrence records (iNaturalist and GBIF) in Indiana, 2000–2026.

Seasonality

Year-round in Indiana, with recorded sightings peaking in September–October, with a smaller rise in March–April.

Occurrence map

Where Western Meadow Vole has been recorded in Indiana

44 records mapped · zoom and drag to explore

44 Indiana records mapped

Notable places to look

Park, forest, or monumentiNaturalist records
Goose Pond Fish And Wildlife Area 1
Indiana Dunes National Park 1

Protected places with the most western meadow vole sightings, from the USGS Protected Areas Database plus named mountain ranges, good spots to look, not a full breakdown, so they don't sum to the total.

Where it's recorded in Indiana

CountyRecords
Tippecanoe County 8
Monroe County 5
Allen County 5
Lake County 3
Hendricks County 2
Hamilton County 2
St. Joseph County 2
Morgan County 2
Elkhart County 1
Jackson County 1
Henry County 1
Fountain County 1
11 other counties 11

The complete county distribution, spread across 23 Indiana counties. Every occurrence record falls in one county, so these sum to the total. Counties from GBIF and US Census boundaries.

Indiana meadow-vole records point to grassy, moist cover around Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge, fish and wildlife areas, stream margins, and unmown fields. March and September–October stand out in the records, when changing cover and field activity may expose runways or animals otherwise hidden beneath dense vegetation.

The 44 iNaturalist records are encounters, not a measure of vole abundance. Small mammals are rarely noticed without trapping or a chance predator encounter, and those survey methods are uneven across Indiana, so a sparse public record map should not be read as a sparse population.

Occurrence data from iNaturalist.

More mammals in Indiana in the atlas

Data & sources

The data and visualizations on this page draw on these open sources:

  • GBIFCC-BY 4.0occurrence records behind the range map, elevation, and record counts
  • iNaturalistCC0 / CC-BY / CC-BY-SAobservations, photos, and audio recordings
  • NatureServe ExplorerCC-BYthe state conservation rank
  • IUCN Red Listattributed factthe global conservation status
  • USGS NASpublic domainnative / introduced status
  • Natural Earthpublic domainthe relief basemap
  • USFSpublic domainnational-forest boundaries
  • USGS Protected Areas Databasepublic domainthe named parks, forests, and refuges behind "notable places to look"