Saturday 13 June 2015

Focus on Latrines

 Heron, Prees Heath

 Male stonechat, Whixall Moss

 Green tiger beetle, Whixall Moss

 Below: two latrines from Black Park Road. Above, a burrow from the same area.


 Below: four latrines from Greenfields nature reserve (Whitchurch Country Park).





 Latrine, Edgeley Road

Latrine, Edgeley Road 

Juvenile water vole, Edgeley Road

4 comments:

Ian Doyle said...

Interesting post. I had no idea that voles had latrines, blogging is an education. I will look out for such latrines when I vist my local brook next.

Kate said...

Latrines are territorial markers, and can be quite big and several layers old. The voles trample their droppings down often, to spread and enhance the scent. Females make lots of latrines as their territories are smaller; males' territories being larger, they don't make so many. There's supposed to be some formula whereby you can work out the number of voles on a stretch of bank by counting up the latrines.

Kate said...

Field voles also make latrines, but those tend to be in the middle of fields and not at the water's edge. Also, their droppings are much smaller.

Ian Doyle said...

Thanks Kate, this information will help alot as I'm planning to look for voles as part of my 30 Days Wild Challenge this month.