Woodland vole
species of mammal

The woodland vole (Microtus pinetorum) is a small vole found in eastern North America. It is also known as the pine vole.
Characteristics
The woodland vole has a head and body length ranging between 3.25–4.75 in (83–121 mm) with a 0.5–1.5 in (13–38 mm) short tail. Its weight ranges between 0.5–1.3 oz (14–37 g). It has a brown (light or dark) dorsal region with a whitish or silvery underside. The eyes, external ears and tail are reduced to adapt to their partially subterranean lifestyle.
Ecology
The woodland vole lives throughout the eastern United States, ranging as far as Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. They inhabit deciduous forests, dry fields, and apple orchards. Voles prefer wooded areas with high vertical vegetative stratification but also evergreen shrubs, ground cover, and old fallen logs. Deciduous forests with moist, friable soils are suitable for burrowing and voles are most abundant in these habitats.
“Woodland vole” enters the record as species of mammal. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Woodland, vole and species can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Woodland vole” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Woodland, vole and species provides the most credible route into that argument.
Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1765289. The Library of Congress control number is sh85102533. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Woodland vole” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.