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.

Excitement on Morven

I'm afraid Gail failed to take a photo of last week's most important and exciting event. 

It took place during a walk with Gail and her friend Henry, on Morven, a favourite Aberdeenshire hill.

Gail did at least get a picture of me near the summit cairn, only a short while before and only a few meters from where the exciting and important event took place.

 

So let me tell you what happened next.

As Gail and her friend Henry started the descent, I wandered 'off-piste'. Not an unusual occurrence. 

I heard Gail shouting "Come Nobby, COME!" but a rustling noise in the moss and stunted heather had captured my attention.

I pounced on this wriggling little furry creature, which started squeaking, just like one of my toys, as I held it between my jaws.  

What fun! I was happily entertaining myself, dropping my squeaky new plaything, then picking it up again, when Gail approached and rudely dragged me away.

"Leave it Nobby, LEAVE IT!"

Stupidly, on reflex I relaxed my hold and watched my prize catch scuttle off into the low growing vegetation. I could not follow as Gail had for once moved fast and clamped on my lead before I realized what she was up to. 

But later, I did feel rather proud when Gail said to Henry that in nearly 24 years of owning terriers, this the first time one had actually caught a rodent* in her presence.

*Gail says: I'm pretty sure it was a field vole - they are apparently known to have a squeak that sounds like a child's toy. I am more than a little surprised that the vole apparently survived the encounter with Nobby's jaws, although I fear it would have suffered psychological damage, at the very least!