Releasing field voles

[brahminy]

Hi,

I recently acquired 2 rescue cats, who just brought me their first "gift" - a very sweet & very much alive field vole. It seems uninjured & I have it in a small mouse cage where it has happily burrowed under shredded newspaper & nibbled at a strawberry.

I'm just looking for advice as to the best way to release it - obviously keeping the cats inside so they don't see where. There is a large park behind the house. (I suspect they captured it very close to home, maybe even the back garden - but don't know where.) Might there be territory issues if I release it further afield? (I now know the males are territorial, but I didn't look before I put it in the cage - so it could be either! From the way it was standing up to the cats, I suspect male...) Is there a particular time that would be better - eg. when are the voles most active?

My previous cats occasionally left a dead vole outside after a night out, so I'd always presumed they were nocturnal. But these cats stay inside at night & obviously hadn't long caught this one, so maybe I was wrong.

Thanks,
brahminy

[Dogghound]

Place it in an area of rough grassland with plenty of tussocks, preferably with surrounding areas of bramble scrub. Release is best early morning however there is never a great time as Owls hunt them by night and kestrels by day amoungst many other predators so there is never a safe time to be a vole.

Voles are active both by day and night but as with alot of small mammals peak activity is night, dawn and dusk.

[brahminy]

Thanks.

As it was, the wee thing didn't make it - it was dead this morning. It had seemed ok yesterday, so maybe the shock got it in the end. I just hope it wasn't anything I did (apart from aqcuire the cats, of course).

[Dogghound]

possibly high stress levels (best to keep them in the dark and warm) or could be internal injury from the cat.