New Hampshire’s occurrence databases hold just 25 woodland vole records, one of the sparsest tallies of any mammal in this atlas. That’s less a sign of true scarcity than of a rodent that spends nearly its whole life out of sight underground.
Tunnels under the Lakes Region’s hardwoods
Woodland voles burrow through loose, well-drained soil beneath thick leaf litter, a combination the Lakes Region’s forested hills supply in the maple, beech, and oak stands that ring its lakes and river valleys. That’s a different foundation than the thin, rocky soils of New Hampshire’s higher White Mountain peaks, where a burrowing vole finds far less to dig into.
Rarely seen, always underfoot
Short-tailed and small-eyed, this vole runs shallow tunnel systems just beneath the surface rather than the open runways a meadow vole cuts through grass. It feeds mostly on roots, bark, and underground fungi, gnawing at plant roots from below in a way that can go entirely unnoticed above ground. New Hampshire’s records trickle in across most months with a modest August peak, a pattern that likely tracks when observers are out looking rather than any real shift in how many voles are moving underground.
Status in New Hampshire
NatureServe ranks the woodland vole S4, apparently secure, in New Hampshire, close to its G5 global rank. It’s native to the state, living out its underground life in the same hardwood soils that support much of the Lakes Region’s forest cover.
