Ecologists are beginning their autumn survey of voles in the Cairngorms Connect project area, which covers over 60,000 hectares of the national park and aims to restore its habitats, species and ecological processes.

Every spring and autumn, Forestry and Land Scotland collaborates with Cairngorms Connect Predator Project partners to carry out surveys to estimate the number of short-tailed field voles, bank voles and wood mice present in their Cairngorm forests.

Kenny Kortland, wildlife ecologist for FLS and lead on the Cairngorms Connect Predator Project, said:

“We’re particularly interested in the abundance of field voles, which could be described as the most important species in the Cairngorms ecosystem.

“They have a huge influence on the system, as they are the main food of carnivores such as pine martens and foxes, which are the main predators of rare species like capercaillie.

“We survey voles in spring and autumn because we want to know how abundant they are during the breeding season of other species, such as capercaillie.

“Field vole populations go up and down in a regular cycle, over the course of a few years. When vole numbers are low, the predators will switch to other food sources.

“Recent work in this area* has shown that pine martens will switch to shrews and small birds, while foxes will switch to deer carrion and, believe it or not, dog poo. 

“Both foxes and pine martens will also eat small numbers of protected species, such as capercaillie, and by understanding the vole cycle, as well as the ecology of the predators, we can manage and protect the rare species more effectively. 

“When vole numbers are high, we probably don’t need to do much, but when vole numbers are low, we may have to act to reduce capercaillie predation.  For example, by providing extra food to divert predators away from capercaillie.”

Cosy traps and tiny poos

PhD student Jack Bamber from the Cairngorms Connect Predator Project, is working on the vole survey with FLS.

He’ll spend three weeks in the Cairngorms counting voles and mice.

“Field voles are tiny, about 10cm long, and hard to spot in the long grasses that they prefer. We look for their droppings, both old and new, which are tiny and easily identifiable. We also look for chewed bits of grass. From the counts of these signs, we can calculate the abundance of the field voles. 

“Bank voles are about the same size and there are a lot of them living in the Cairngorms’ forests. They’re eaten less often than field voles, probably because they live in the forests and spend quite a bit of time in the trees.

“For bank voles and woodmice, which don’t leave obvious signs of their presence, we set very cosy traps that are filled with carrots and oats. Some of the voles get a bit trap happy and keep coming back, because they know there’s good food in there, so we have to account for that in our results.”

The FLS team will share the survey results with the Cairngorms Connect project team later this year.

Notes to editors

1. Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) manages forests and land owned by Scottish Ministers in a way that supports and enables economically sustainable forestry; conserves and enhances the environment; delivers benefits for people and nature; and supports Scottish Ministers in their stewardship of Scotland's national forests and land.

2. forestryandland.gov.scot | twitter.com/ForestryLS

3. Media enquiries to Paul Munro, Media Manager, Forestry and Land Scotland Media Office 07785 527590 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

4. Cairngorms Connect is a partnership of neighbouring land managers (Wildland Limited, Forestry and Land Scotland, RSPB Scotland and NatureScot) working towards a 200-year vision to enhance habitat, species and ecological process across a vast 600 square kilometre area within the Cairngorms National Park.
5. The partnership received funding from the Endangered Landscape Programme (ELP) to help progress the landscape scale restoration which is ongoing. The Endangered Landscapes Programme (ELP) is funded by Arcadia, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin, and is managed by the Cambridge Conservation Initiative.