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I am best acquainted with the haymouse, or singing vole (Microtus miurus oreas) because some of my field observations led me to him. Some years ago I kept finding many caches of dried vegetation, some caches large enough to fill a bushel basket. This hay was always kept either off the ground or under cover. It was placed at the base of willows in the basket formed by the many stems, or on a surface spruce root, in a rock niche, or under a log. Pikas are known to make hay, but no such activity has been reported for mice. Pikas were not involved for they live in the talus rock, and these caches were mostly far from pika habitat. After considerable effort, I learned that a yellowish-brown field mouse was the interesting haymaker. The hay is put up for winter use. The sign showed that sometimes a snowshoe hare found a cache and helped himself.
In addition to hay, this mouse also stores roots in underground cellars that he excavates, and the roots are not thrown in helter-skelter, at least not in most of the caches I examined. The black, round nutlike tubers of the horsetail were in one pile, coltsfoot underground stems in another, and carrotlike roots of a pedicularis in still another. An interesting feature was the structure of some of the tunnels which were built in the form of a pearl necklace. Tiny passages, just large enough for the body of the mouse to squeeze through, joined the cavities or, so to speak, the “pearls.” In addition to all of these accomplishments, these mice do much miniature warbling, enough so they have been called singing voles.
Haymouse (singing vole)
The tail is short, measuring slightly over 1 inch; the body length averages about 5 inches. It is found from moist lowland habitats to ridge tops.
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The large, plump, and richly-colored brown lemming (Lemmus trimucronatus alascensis) is notorious for his overpopulation problem. On some occasions they migrate in hordes, even into the ocean in some parts of their circumpolar home. The lemming is cyclic in the park, but usually only to about the same degree as the other mice. However, in the low part of the cycle, they may become extremely scarce, more so than do the voles. The brown lemming does not turn white in winter as does its relative, the collared lemming (over most of its range). The body is about 5½ inches long and the tail is just under 1 inch. The thumb claw consists of a three-pronged flat nail. A large lemming weighs about one-quarter pound. They are widely distributed in both open tundra and woods where the habitat is not too dry.
Brown Lemming.