Thursday 21 June 2012

Latrine Special!




Below: two posts showing smaller, lighter field vole droppings nest to bigger, darker water vole pellets.




Occasionally you'll find droppings on sturdy leaves.


Discarded fence posts are a favourite place for water voles to set up latrines.

It's rare for water voles to poo on their feeding sations, but they do sometimes. Field voles do this regularly.

If a latrine's old or it's been trampled down, it can be very hard to spot.


Water vole swims towards trail cam.

Aside from actually seeing a water vole, droppings are the least ambiguous field sign so they're great to see when you're doing riparian survey work. Latrines mark territory, and the larger ones are made by females. Males do make smaller latrines, further apart because theit territories stretch further.

No comments: