Myodes glareolus
Silhouette: PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
The bank vole (Clethrionomys glareolus) is a small vole with red-brown fur and some grey patches, with a tail about half as long as its body. A rodent, it lives in woodland areas and is around 100 millimetres (3.9 in) in length. The bank vole is found in much of Europe and in northwestern Asia. It is native to Great Britain but not to Ireland, where it has been accidentally introduced, and has now colonised much of the south and southwest.
The bank vole lives in woodland, hedgerows and other dense vegetation, such as bracken and bramble. Its underground chamber is lined with moss, feathers and vegetable fibre and contains a store of food. It can live for eighteen months to two years in the wild and over 42 months in captivity and is mostly herbivorous, eating buds, bark, seeds, nuts, leaves and fruits and occasionally insects and other small invertebrates. It readily climbs into scrub and low branches of trees although it is not as versatile as a mouse. It breeds in shallow burrows, the female rearing about four litters of pups during the summer.
The bank vole is a small rodent resembling a mouse when young but developing a stouter body, a slightly rounder head with... Wikipedia →
Recording0:05
Netherlands · 2025
© Jurriën de Vries · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
Recording0:11
Germany · 2023
© Annika Oberlaender · Observation.org, Nature data from around the World · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Plitvice Lakes National Park | 🇭🇷 Croatia | |
| 2 | Białowieża National Park | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 3 | Cairngorms National Park | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 4 | Snowdonia National Park | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Skansen | 🇸🇪 Sweden | |
| 2 | Ranua Wildlife Park | 🇫🇮 Finland | |
| 3 | Zoo de La Flèche | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 4 | Baltic Sea Science Center | 🇸🇪 Sweden |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Bank Vole sighting in Cairngorms National Park on a given day, based on 14 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 12th most-seen of the 19 mammals we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February, April–July and October
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Bank Vole in Cairngorms National Park on a given day, against under 5% in March, September and November–January, the lowest months.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Bank Vole sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
3rd of 4
Of the 4 parks where we can rate Bank Vole sightings, Cairngorms National Park ranks 3rd at about 10%. The best odds are in Plitvice Lakes National Park (Croatia, about 40%) and Białowieża National Park (Poland, about 20%).
Same family: Cricetidae
The closest relatives of the Bank Vole that you can see in Cairngorms National Park (family Cricetidae, Hamsters, Voles, Lemmings, and Allies) are Field Vole (about 10%) and European Water Vole (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Bank Vole is recorded against all the mammals logged in Cairngorms National Park (14 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
