On 25/11/2015 11:55, Martin wrote:
They must have some way of differentiating.

Acccording to Google Translate Water Vole is waterrat.

http://en.bab.la/dictionary/english-dutch/vole
vole = woelrat

Dutch veldmuis is translated as vole, but that is probably because a field mouse
is a synonym for vole in the USA.

Kamers Dictionary has Veldmuis translated as Field Mouse, Vole

Our local Dutch newspaper described the pest as field mice.

Van Dale "Pocket" English - Dutch dictionary doesn't contain the word vole.



I looked at this when the problem first started getting reported. What's strange
is the problem is being ignored by politicians to the point that nobody has
tried to extract money from the EU. Attempts by farmers to get Dutch governmant
aid/compensation failed. When all the dykes leak like sieves something will be
done about the problem. Something similar happened in the 19th century

English Wikipedia on Water Vole
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_water_vole
links me to the Dutch
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woelrat

A little rummaging suggests to me that voles may be woelmuizen, a mouse
a muis, and a rat is a ... rat. But common names aren't good guides. The
field vole here is often known as the short-tailed field mouse.

Andy
--
I speak no Dutch.