Missouri’s occurrence databases hold just 55 woodland vole records, the smallest total of any species mapped in this part of the atlas. Most of this animal’s life happens out of sight underground, which likely keeps the record count low regardless of how many actually live across its Ozark range.
Built for tunneling under Ozark leaf litter
The woodland vole digs shallow tunnels just beneath the leaf litter and topsoil of hardwood forest, feeding on roots and tubers as it goes, and it needs loose, well drained ground with a thick layer of leaf litter to do it. Mark Twain National Forest and the hollows along the Ozark National Scenic Riverways sit right in that kind of habitat, the Ozark Plateau’s rocky, timbered ridges holding exactly the leaf litter and loamy soil this species depends on. It’s rarely seen at the surface, since almost its entire life plays out in that shallow underground layer.
A record set shaped by what stays hidden
Woodland vole ranks lowest of the 52 species tracked in this part of the atlas, a records slot that likely reflects how hard a tunneling animal is to trap or spot rather than any real scarcity across its Ozark range. The monthly counts back that up: records turn up in nearly every month, with a small cluster in April and another in December, but no single season stands out the way it would for an animal that forages mainly above ground. That flat, scattered pattern fits a species that stays active underground through the year instead of emerging on a seasonal schedule.
Status in Missouri
Missouri lists the woodland vole as native, and NatureServe ranks it S4, Apparently Secure, putting it in the same broadly secure category as most of the state’s small mammals.
