North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Ernest Plutko" <ernestplutko@wiktel.com>]

Hi Alan:  There are many kinds of small rodents.  They probably are
called different local names. What do you call a wood rat?  When I
lived in Pa. there were wood rats that lived on the wooded mountains.
I'll do research and sort out the IDs of the rodents.   There must be
biologists out there who can help.  Keep in touch.  I'll try trapping
and see what I can catch and photograph.  If you trap use plastic
gloves to handle the rodents.  

---- Original Message ----
From: alandhaigh@gmail.com
To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: RE: [NAFEX] size of meadow voles
Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2010 05:07:49 -0500

>The correction given me about meadow vole size caused me to do a
>little
>searching and now I'm a bit confused about my own rodents here in
>southeastern NY.  I described 2 types- one slightly smaller and tan
>and
>white and only in the 4" range that I think are meadow voles.  These
>seem to
>be responsible for girdling trees and create runs through grass.  A
>little
>larger, maybe 4.5 inches,  with shorter tails and grey-black fur are
>what I
>identify as my pine voles.  They come up from fairly deep holes and
>kill the
>trees by stripping the roots of everything but the largest wood at
>the
>center.
>
>The only difference between the references I find and what I see here
>is my
>voles don't get 6' long if we're talking about body length.  The
>reference
>did say that size varies with larger animals the colder the climate. 
>Can
>anybody explain what might be the reason for the smaller rodents in
>my
>area?  I've been trapping these animals here for 20 years and have
>seen
>hundreds if not thousands of the animals.  If there were any larger
>rodents
>here besides wood rats, chip monks and squirrels I would have trapped
>them
>as well because I set both rat and mouse traps.