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Name This Animal

What's leaving these little trails in the snow?

18 years ago

Anybody know what's leaving these little trails in the snow in my yard? I think they started out as tunnels, like in the first picture - I put my finger through and it was hollow. The second two pictures might have been after the top layer of snow melted, or maybe they started out like that. The trail is about an inch wide. The top picture was taken today, the others a couple years ago. I'm in suburban NJ. Could mice do this? Or do I have snow moles?

Thanks.

WW

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Comments (7)

Day_By_Day
18 years ago
Hm, that's a good one.
caliloo
18 years ago
I would guess voles.

Alexa
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weedwoman
Original Author
18 years ago
You may be right. One of my animal track field guides says "In heavy snow country, the meadow voles tend to remain beneath the surface, where they travel in snowy tunnels and have their snug nests." You counldn't call this heavy snow country, but I guess they take advantage when they can. Odd that I've never seen the trails in my yard in the summer; maybe I just didn't notice them. Thanks!.

WW
sawdust_maker
18 years ago
Yep. I always get a kick out of seeing the trails in our lawn after a winter. We DO live in moderately heavy snow country.

I don't always find trails though. It definitely helps if the snow pack has been there for a few months without melting away, so they can use one tunnel for a long enough time. Also, the trails disappear before too long in the spring, so you need to look for them.

John
jemdandy
18 years ago
I have voles and they make runs under the snow just like your pictures. I've nicknames mine, "snow-moles", because they from runs in snow just like moles do in dirt. I've watched mine make a run after a snow of a coule of inches. You can see the tunnel devloping under the snow and occassionaly, the vole may poke its nose up through the snow, then quickly duck down and tunnel again adjusting his depth. The only runs is see in early summer are those left over from winter.

As the snow melts, their little pasageways comes to light in my backyard and I observe that my voles have constructed an under-snow labrinth to under the bird feeder where they have feasted on dropped seeds.

My voles live in a nest under ground next to the basement wall. They are active all winter. Maybe they sleep part of the tme but do forage in winter. They eat the roots and stems of grasses leaving a canopy of dried grass blades over their runs. Next spring, evidence of their presence is seen by a trail absent of grass, but that soon fills in as summer arrives.

The vole is in the mouse family and looks like a little gray mouse with an elongated, pink,nose similar to a mole. An owl will make a quick meal of a vole when they can find one.
weedwoman
Original Author
18 years ago
Well, that's cool. Now that I know what I'm looking for maybe I can find some other signs of them.

WW
irisheyesaresmilin
18 years ago
When they eat all of your plants, you'll know why......

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