European water vole

Description

European water voles are large, stocky and long-tailed voles and is the second largest vole species in Europe after the introduced muskrat. It has a snout-vent length of 130-165 mm, a tail length of 50-90 mm, and a foot length of 22-27 mm and ear length 12-15 mm. 

The coat is long, dense and glossy. It is variable on the upperparts, mostly dark brown, rarely light brown. The tail is lighter. The underpart is whitish or yellowish grey.

Habitat

Depending on the population, the animals live mainly aquatic in rivers, streams and swamps or terrestrial in meadows, orchards and gardens, less frequently in wooded areas.

The text is a translation of an excerpt from Wikipedia (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostschermaus). On wikipedia the text is available under a „Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike“ licence. Status: 20 August 2021