More about Rodents!

Well friends, after my thrillingly close encounter with a field vole last week, who can blame me for wanting to devote this week's Nature Friday post to the exciting topic of rodents? 

I have been doing some research.

First, let's find out which rodents I might see out in the wild in the UK. Here's a list I found on the Mammal Society's website: 

Rodentia (Rodents)

• Red squirrel – Sciurus vulgaris (N)
• Grey squirrel – Sciurus carolinensis (I)
• Eurasian beaver – Castor fiber (N)
• Hazel dormouse – Muscardinus avellanarius (N)
• Edible dormouse – Glis glis (I)
• Bank vole – Myodes glareolus (N)
• Field vole – Microtus agrestis (N)
• Water vole – Arvicola amphibius (N)
• Harvest mouse – Micromys minutus (N)
• Wood mouse – Apodemus sylvaticus (N)
• Yellow-necked mouse – Apodemus flavicollis (N)
• House mouse – Mus musculus (N)
• Brown rat – Rattus norvegicus (I)
• Black rat – Rattus rattus (I)

You'll have guessed, correctly, that (N) denotes a native species and (I) introduced. 

Now I think we can all agree that the native red squirrel, pictured below, is much cutest of our two 'tree rat' species. 

The North American grey squirrel, first introduced into parks and gardens in the 1870s, has come to dominate in most areas, but I am pleased to report that it has been all but eradicated from Aberdeen (how I would love to have helped), and the pretty little reds, prolific in the hinterland, are slowly returning to the city.

Let's now consider the voles. Three species here, field, bank and water. Gail's favourite book from childhood was Kenneth Grahame's 'Wind in the Willows', and she says she wouldn't forgive me if I ever harmed 'Ratty', pictured below on the river with his dear friend 'Mole'.

'Ratty' is misleadingly named, being in fact a water vole and not a rat. In the story he claims "there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats". However I do not believe that this is an accurate representation of normal water vole behaviour.

Sticking with literature for a moment, you might remember the Dormouse from 'Alice in Wonderland', present but mostly asleep at the Mad Hatter's Tea Party.

In this case, it seems the author, Lewis Carroll, got it right. Hazel dormice not only hibernate but go into a state of 'torpor' when the temperature drops, and so spend up to three-quarters of the years in some form of 'sleep' state. Also, they only come out at night, so are rarely seen.

Lastly, we turn to the beaver. These largest of our rodent species were hunted to extinction in the UK 400 years ago but have now been successfully reintroduced (albeit not without controversy) in several parts of the country. Gail and I would both, perhaps for different reasons, love to see beavers in the wild in our part of Scotland. We suspect they would be more active than the one featured in this Gary Larson cartoon...

Happy Nature Friday friends! Thanks to the  LLB Gang for once again hosting our favourite blog hop.