Bank vole
Bank vole | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Rodentia |
Family: | Cricetidae |
Subfamily: | Arvicolinae |
Genus: | Clethrionomys |
Species: | C. glareolus
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Binomial name | |
Clethrionomys glareolus (Schreber, 1780)
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Range of bank vole | |
Synonyms | |
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The bank vole (Clethrionomys glareolus) is a small vole with red-brown fur and some grey patches, with a tail about half as long as its body. A rodent, it lives in woodland areas and is around 100 millimetres (3.9 in) in length. The bank vole is found in much of Europe and in northwestern Asia. It is native to Great Britain but not to Ireland, where it has been accidentally introduced, and has now colonised much of the south and southwest.
The bank vole lives in
Description
The bank vole is a small rodent resembling a mouse when young but developing a stouter body, a slightly rounder head with smaller ears and eyes and a shorter, hairy tail. The dorsal surface is reddish-brown, with a greyish undercoat and the flanks are grey with a reddish-brown sheen. The underparts are whitish-grey sometimes tinged with dull yellow. The ears are larger than those of most voles. The adult head and body length varies between 3.25 and 4.75 inches (83 and 121 mm) and the tail ranges from 1.5 to 3 inches (38 to 76 mm). The weight is between 15.4 and 36 grams (0.54 and 1.27 oz). Young animals are darker in colour with greyer underparts. The bank vole is capable of making growling sounds and can utter low-pitched squeaks.[2] In a case of distress and isolation it has been witnessed to emit a sound resembling that of a human sob.
In areas such as Great Britain, where the only other small vole is the
Distribution
The bank vole has a
Habitat
The bank vole is found in forests, especially in deciduous and mixed woodland with scrub, low plants and leaf litter. It is also present in hedgerows, field verges, among bracken and brambles, river banks, swamps and parks. In mountainous regions and the northern part of its range it occurs in coniferous woodland at altitudes of up to 1,800 metres (5,900 ft). It is not found on bare soil and ample ground cover seems a necessity.[2] In the Mediterranean region, at the southern extent of its range, it is a habitat specialist and is found in moist woodland but not in grassland and bushy places.[4] At the fringes of forested areas it is possible for there to be a metapopulation consisting of a number of spatially separated populations of bank vole that come and go according to the season and local events. Some areas may be devoid of voles during the winter and be repopulated during the summer only to become empty of voles again in October. The further from permanently inhabited forest the location is, the fewer females there are and the more widely the number of individuals fluctuates.[5]
Behaviour
The bank vole is active by day and also at night. It does not
The bank vole is primarily a herbivore. Its diet varies with the season but usually consists of leaves, grasses, roots, buds, bark, fruits, nuts, grain and seeds. When feeding on grass stalks it may clip the stalks and lay the cut pieces in piles. Some food is carried back to the burrow where it is kept in dedicated storage chambers. It sometimes eats animal food in the form of insects, spiders and worms and may take eggs from the nests of birds nesting on the ground.[2][6]
The bank vole climbs well and in the winter it feeds on the bark of trees including beeches, maples and larch up to several metres above the ground. It also eats tree seedlings and reduces the natural regeneration of woodland and when present in large numbers, is considered a forest pest. However, its harmfulness is relatively low in a healthy ecosystem because significant damage only occurs when numbers build up, and because it has a large number of natural enemies its population is normally kept under control.[7]
Females are typically larger than males, but male-bias sexual dimorphism occurs in alpine populations, possibly because of the lack of predators and greater competition between males.[8]
Breeding
Females maintain territories which may overlap somewhat, and males occupy larger territories covering those of several females. The home range of females is usually between 500 and 2,000 square metres (5,400 and 21,500 sq ft).[9] The breeding season lasts from late April to September. Females appear to prefer dominant males and may actively avoid other vagrant males. The gestation period averages 21 days, being longer if the female is still lactating from a previous litter. A litter can be up to ten pups but the average number is four to eight. Females sometimes kill pups in burrows in adjoining territories and males sometimes kill pups before mating with their mother, perhaps as a tactic to ensure his offspring are advantaged. The pups are naked and helpless and their eyes open at about nine days. They are weaned at 20 to 25 days and the females become sexually mature by six weeks with the males reaching maturity by eight weeks. There may be up to four litters per year and as the youngsters start to breed, numbers quickly build up over the summer months. The bank vole lives for up to two years in the wild.[6] In captivity this can increase to over 42 months, with the older voles tending to spend most time resting, less physically agile, though still capable of having a spin on the wheel.
Ecology
The bank vole is plentiful during much of the year and plays an important part in the diet of various predators including the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), the stoat (Mustela erminea), the least weasel (Mustela nivalis), the European mink (Mustela lutreola), the common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus), the rough-legged buzzard (Buteo lagopus) and the tawny owl (Strix aluco). The voles try to prevent being caught by avoiding open areas of ground, by using tunnels and well-worn paths through the undergrowth.[6]
The bank vole acts as a reservoir of infection for the
Status
The bank vole has a very wide range across Europe and western Asia. The population density depends on the time of year and location and varies between six and one hundred individuals per hectare. The population size varies from year to year but in the long term appears to be stable. For these reasons, the
References
- ^ . Retrieved 18 March 2022.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-00-212080-7.
- ^ "Skomer Vole (Myodes glareolus skomerensis)". Storm Crow. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
- S2CID 6992367.
- JSTOR 354501.
- ^ a b c Lundrigan, Barbara; Mueller, Marie (2003). "Myodes glareolus: Bank vole". Animal Diversity Web. University of Michigan. Retrieved 21 July 2013.
- .
- ISBN 978-0-226-90538-9.
- S2CID 19785867.
- ^ Yeron Kalner (7 August 2014) "Deadly Research," Retrieved Yedioth Ahronoth, p. 27, announced the death of Dr. Keren Ambar, a post-graduate studying the behavior of the bank vole in Finland. She had been affected by the Puumala virus which caused a complete breakdown of her immune system.
- PMID 17824420.
- ^ "Bank vole (Clethrionomys glareolus)". ARKive. Archived from the original on 27 December 2013. Retrieved 25 July 2013.