Voles Compared to Rats

 

Rats: greyer, much pointier nose, more prominent ears, white feet.

Rats and Water Voles: Spot the Differences.

 

Rats: grey fur, sharp noses, prominent ears, pink feet and long, naked tail.

Water voles: brown fur, blunt noses, small ears, black feet with white claws, furry brown tail of medium length.

Water Voles and Rats (again)

 

 

 

Above, water vole and rat at White Lion Meadow.

Below, a comparison of the two animals' droppings.

 

 

 Lizards at Prees Heath. Some are pregnant females.

 

 

 A raven at Brook Vessons

 Edgeley Road water vole. Sightings are becoming fewer now, as the autumn comes near.

Comparing Rats and Water Voles

In summary: rats have prominent ears, while voles' ears are small and tucked away.

Rats' noses are pink, where water voles' are black.

Rats' feet are while and water voles' are black.

Rats' fur tends towards greyish brown, whereas water voles' fur is richer brown.

Rats' tails are naked, long and pink, while water voles' tails are brown, medium-length, and covered in fur.

Worried

Female crossbill spotted at Clun

Water vole droppings in the field by Edgeley Road

I haven't seen a water vole at White Lion Meadow for twenty days now and am increasingly concerned they've been driven away or killed by rats. I am keeping a close eye on the situation, but there's not a lot else I can do.

Other Than Voles

Brown rat - very different from a water vole

Sexton beetle

Early Thorn

Mum fox, and cubs

Smug rabbit

Starting to get sightings now in the field off Edgeley Road. In the meantime, hedgehogs are crowding the garden, and I was lucky enough to get this glimpse of a family of fox cubs playing on the other side of town.

Rats and Voles - Essentially, it's Down to Bluntness

I hope these comparison shots are helpful for looking at the differences between rats and water voles. A similar size, but the muzzle of a rat is much pointier, and the ears more prominent. At the other end of the animal, the tail of a rat is pink and scaly where a water vole's is brown and furred.

Safety

 Spot the vole

 White Lion Meadow

Water vole droppings. They're too small for rat, and also they're rounded at the end, not pointed.

It makes sense, when you're as prone to predation as the water vole, to eat with your backside half inside a burrow.

Meanwhile the droppings at White Lion meadow car park show definite water vole presence there. A female sometimes nests under the bank near here, so it could be the same set-up again this year.

White Lion Meadow: when voles hide

(Edgeley Road vole - a juvenile)

I've looked a few times at White Lion Meadow, the colourfully named town car park near Tesco, but haven't seen anything other than this rat climbing a bramble. But I know the voles are there because they're leaving their carefully-cut lengths of reed neatly piled on the banks.

Rat Reprise

I've covered this subject before but it bears repeating: water voles are not rats. The chap in the photo immediately above is a common rat, Rattus norvegicus, with grey fur, prominent ears, a pointed pink nose, white feet and (if you could see it) a naked grey/pink tail.

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Our water vole, top photo, has brown fur, tiny ears set close to the head, a blunt black nose, black feet and a dark furred tail.

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If you need to get rid of rats in a water voley area, you need to seek professional advice as it's an offence to harm water voles even accidentally during genuine pest control.