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Northern Red-backed vole
Myodes rutilus
63.7229, -148.959
Field Notes
Description:
They have short slender bodies with a rust-colored back, light brown sides and underparts and a short thick tail. Their short ears are visible through their fur. They are 14 cm long with a 3.5 cm tail and weigh about 30 to 40 g. Their dental formula is 1/1, 0/0, 0/0, 3/3.[3] They are active year-round, usually at night. They can cause damage to fruit trees and stored grains.
Habitat:
Northern red-backed voles are commonly found in northern shrub vegetation or open taiga forests. They also inhabit tundra.[2][5][7] Northern red-backed voles are abundant on early successional sites as well as in mature forests.[5] They occasionally inhabit rock fields and talus slopes.[2]
Northern red-backed voles use surface runways through the vegetation as travel corridors. Nests are built in short underground burrows or under some protective object such as a rock or root.[2] Northern red-backed voles are active all winter and construct long tunnels under the snow. Winter nests typically are placed on the ground among thick moss.[2][5] Northern red-backed voles frequently invade houses during the winter.
Northern red-backed voles live in a variety of northern forest and shrubland habitats.[2][4] They occur in every major forest type in central Alaska.[5] Plant species commonly found in areas occupied by northern red-backed voles include black spruce (Picea mariana), white spruce (P. glauca), quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides), paper birch (Betula papyrifera), alder (Alnus spp.), willow (Salix spp.), mountain cranberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea), blueberry and bilberry (Vaccinium spp.), bunchberry (Cornus canadensis), and a variety of grasses and forbs. Important fungi, mosses and lichens include truffle (Endogone fascilulata), Schreber's moss (Pleurozium schreberi), mountain fern moss (Hylocomium splendens), sphagnum (Sphagnum spp.), and lichens (Cladonia and Peltigera spp.).
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