Its range extends throughout Western Europe and eastwards to Lake Baikal in Siberia and north west China and northward to Norway, Sweden and Finland.

[6] It is found in a range of habitats including meadows, field borders, plantations, woodland verges, clearings, upland heaths, dunes, marshes, bogs and river banks and tends to prefer wet areas.

It also makes surface runs through tall vegetation, routes along which it can scurry back to safety if danger threatens.

[5] The short-tailed field vole is a herbivore and feeds on grasses, herbs, root tubers, moss and other vegetation and gnaws bark during the winter (it does not hibernate).

The voles choose species with high digestibility where possible and avoid some common plants amongst which they live such as the tufted hairgrass (Deschampsia cespitosa) and rosebay willowherb (Chamerion angustifolium).

Because of the low availability of food in the winter, drier habitats are unable to sustain populations of much over two hundred animals per hectare.

Female field voles sometimes spontaneously move in the time gap between weaning one litter and producing the next, a phenomenon typical of this species.

One of the causes of the large population swings that occur in the short-tailed field vole is the scramble competition which comes into play when the most desirable food plants are less available in mid summer.

[11] At this time litter sizes may fall, growth rates slow down, there may be increased mortality of young in the nest, adults may lose weight and some may die.

[11] The short-tailed field vole is common over most of its very wide range, although thinning out towards the peripheries and may be locally scarce where conditions are less suitable.