Home ranges were calculated for individual voles according to the method described by Blair (1940:149-150). The term, home range, is used as defined by Burt (1943:350-351). Only those voles captured at least four times were used for the home range studies. Individuals which included the edge of the trap grid in their range were excluded unless a barrier existed (see description of habitat) confining the seeming range to the study area.

The validity of home range calculations has been challenged (Hayne, 1950:39) and special methods of determining home range have been advocated by a number of authors. The ranges calculated in this study are assumed to approximate the actual areas used by individuals and are considered useful for comparison with other ranges calculated by similar methods, but no claim to exactness is intended. It is obvious, for instance, that many plotted ranges contain so-called blank areas which, at times, are not actually used by any vole (Elton, 1949:8; Mohr, 1943:553). Studies of the movements of mammals on a more detailed scale, perhaps by live-traps set at shorter intervals and moved frequently, are needed to increase our understanding of home range.

In order to test the reliability of the range calculated, an examination of the relationship between the size of the seeming range and the number of captures was made. For the first three months, trapping on House Field was done with a 20 foot grid and throughout the remainder of the study a 30 foot grid was used. The effect of these different spacings on the size of the seeming home range was also investigated. Hayne (1950:38) found that an increase in the distance between traps caused an increase in the size of the seeming home range, but in my study the increased interval between traps was not accompanied by any change in the sizes of the calculated ranges.

The number of captures, above the minimum of four, did not seem to be a factor in determining the size of the calculated monthly range. A seeming relationship was observed between the number of times an individual was trapped and the total area used during the entire time the vole was trapped. Closer examination revealed that the most important factor was the length of time over which the vole's captures extended. Table 2 shows the progressive increase in sizes of the mean range of animals taken over periods of time from one month to ten months.

Table 2. Relationship Between Home Range Size and Length of Time on the Study Area

Nothing concerning the home range of Microtus ochrogaster was found in the literature. Several workers, including Blair (1940) and Hamilton (1937c), have studied the home range of M. pennsylvanicus. Blair (1940:153) reported a larger range for males than for females in all habitats and in all seasons represented in his sample. In M. ochrogaster, however, I found that the mean monthly range for both sexes was 0.09 of an acre. Blair (loc. cit.) reported no individuals with a range so small as that mean, but Hamilton (op. cit.:261) mentioned two voles with ranges of less than 1200 square feet. The mean total range used by an individual during the entire time it was being trapped showed a slight difference between the sexes. Males used an average of 0.14 of an acre whereas females used an average of but 0.12 of an acre. This suggested that, as in M. pennsylvanicus (Hamilton, loc. cit.), males tended to wander more than females and to shift their home range more often.

The largest monthly range recorded was 0.28 of an acre used by a female in March, 1951, and calculated on the basis of four captures. The largest monthly range of a male was 0.25 of an acre for a vole caught eight times in November, 1950. The smallest monthly range was 0.02 of an acre; several individuals of both sexes were restricted to areas of this size. Juveniles, not included in the home range study, were usually restricted to 0.01 or, at most, 0.02 of an acre. Seasonal differences in the sizes of home ranges were not significant. However, the voles caught in the winter often enough to be used for home range studies were too few for a thorough study of seasonal variation in the size of home ranges.

One female was captured 22 times in the seven-month period of October, 1950, to April, 1951. She used an area of 0.83 of an acre, but this actually comprised two separate ranges. From October, 1950, through December, 1950, she was taken 17 times within an area of 0.12 of an acre; and from January, 1951, to April, 1951, she was taken five times within an area of 0.15 of an acre. The largest area assumed to represent one range of a female was 0.38 of an acre, recorded on the basis of six captures in three months. The largest area encompassed by the record of an individual male was 0.41 of an acre. He, too, shifted his range, being taken five times on an area of 0.07 of an acre and twice, two months later, on an area of 0.09 of an acre. Presumably, the remainder of his calculated total range was used but little, or not at all. The largest single range of a male was 0.36 of an acre, calculated on the basis of 18 captures in seven months. The smallest total range for both sexes was 0.02 of an acre.

Many voles shifted their home range and a few did so abruptly. The large range of a female vole, described above and plotted in Fig. 6, indicated an abrupt shift from one home range to another. More common is a gradual shift as indicated by the range of the male shown in Fig. 7. Large parts of each monthly range of this vole overlapped the area used in other months but his center of activity shifted from month to month.

That home ranges overlapped was demonstrated by frequent capture of two or more individuals together in the same trap. No territoriality has been reported in any species of Microtus, to my knowledge, and my voles showed no objection to sharing their range. Voles taken from the field into the laboratory lived together in pairs or larger groups without much friction.

Definable systems of runways and home ranges were not coextensive. Runway systems tended to merge, as described later in this report, and relationships between them and home range were not apparent. Home ranges had no characteristic shape.