Monday 26 May 2014

Milk and Plain Chocolate










It doesn't often come out in my photos, I don't think, but there's a real difference between baby water voles just out of the nest, and older juveniles/adults. Babies are really quite a dark brown - 70% cocoa solids, I'd say, if you're using chocolate as an indicator. That's how you distinguish them from field voles and bank voles. But older animals are paler-coated, more like a mix of milk and plain chocolate. The photos above show four different young voles, which is reassuring after the heavy rain which can drown new and inexperienced swimmers.

1 comment:

WendyB said...

Lovely photos! Have seen at least two different plain choc babies here in the last 2 weeks or so. I braved the rain on the way back from shopping just now, and had a brief glimpse of a somewhat bedraggled and soaked little specimen that swam just a short distance, and then popped swiftly into the first available hole.