European Water Vole
Arvicola amphibius
The adult European Water Vole lives along slow rivers, ditches, ponds, and marshy banks with dense vegetation. It swims and dives readily, but also uses burrows in soft banks for nesting, feeding, and escape. Its diet is mostly grasses, sedges, reeds, roots, and other waterside plants, leaving neat piles of cut stems near favored feeding spots. Despite its name, it is a vole rather than a rat and has suffered major declines in parts of its range from habitat loss and introduced American mink.
- Type
- Water
- Conservation status
- LC
Growth chain
- ?
- European Water Vole