ABSTRACT
Voles have been studied intensively throughout the world, in part because they cause economic damage and in part because the seeming regularity of their fluctuations has stimulated the theoretical examination of population regulation. Their small size and, in some, fossorial and nocturnal habits have dictated census methods that rely on capture data. The capture-recapture method requires so many assumptions concerning trappability that it is generally used only in the version of minimal number alive. Methods that kill voles (snap traps) are rarely used because the author does not want to kill the voles, thereby defeating the purpose of studying home range or mortality. The Field Vole in Europe has also received attention. Hansson compares various methods for Microtus agrestis. Lauenstein describes a relative method that is applicable to prediction of damage by M. arvalis.
