Sunday 15 August 2010

Diet

Adult

Juvenile - seems to be a warmer colour of brown than the adults

Shame this is out of focus, but it does show the pale underbelly of the vole quite well

Eating grass.

Eating apple.

Eating rosebay willowherb seeds. I normally post close-ups, but here's an adult vole from a distance, for scale.
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Just watched a water vole apparently munching the seeds from a rosebay willowherb. They're recorded as eating 227 different species of plant, plus very occasionally snails, crayfish and possibly frogs. One in captivity ate a bit of fish too, but that was a pregnant female vole who maybe needed extra protein.

2 comments:

Richard said...

Ahhh!! Great pictures, that third one reminds me of my old hamster.
Interesting subject, I wonder if it has anything to do with the time of the year and what else is available. I can't imagine a water vole tackling a crayfish unless it was really hungry (or the crayfish was already dead).

Kate said...

The fish it ate was dead - the incident's recorded in the water vole guide by S A Ryder. W-vs are not above a bit of scavenging. I've seen one eating chips out of a paper cone!