Maine holds just 11 occurrence records for the woodland vole, the sparsest count of any mammal in this dataset. That scarcity reflects both a hidden, underground life and Maine’s position at the very northern edge of the species’ range.
The northern edge of a mostly southern range
Most woodland vole records come from the mid-Atlantic and southeastern states, and Maine sits at the very top of that range, further north than almost anywhere else the species is confirmed. That edge position, more than any single habitat feature, likely explains why records here stay so thin.
A vole that lives more like a mole
Unlike the state’s other voles, this one spends most of its life in shallow tunnels beneath leaf litter and soil, rarely surfacing into the open. It favors loose, well-drained ground under mixed hardwood forest, the kind found through Maine’s North Woods and western mountain foothills, and feeds mostly on roots, tubers, bark, and some green plants and fungi found just below the surface.
Status in Maine
NatureServe ranks the woodland vole S1, critically imperiled, its rarest possible rank, and it’s native to Maine. That status lines up with a range edge this thin: few of Maine’s mammals sit this close to the northern limit of where they’re found at all.
