Western red-backed vole

The western red-backed vole was initially described by C. Hart Merriam under its original scientific name Evotomys californicus.{{cite journal |last1=Alexander |first1=Lois F. |last2=Verts |first2=B. J. |date=10 December 1992 |title=Clethrionomys californicus |url=http://www.science.smith.edu/msi/pdf/i0076-3519-406-01-0001.pdf |journal=Mammalian Species |issue=406 |pages=1–6 |doi=10.2307/3504252 |jstor=3504252 |access-date=14 December 2014 |archive-date=3 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303223525/http://www.science.smith.edu/msi/pdf/i0076-3519-406-01-0001.pdf |url-status=dead }} The type specimen was obtained at near Eureka, California. It was an adult male collected by Theodore Sherman Palmer on June 3, 1889.{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/monographofvoles01brit |title=Monograph of the voles and lemmings (Microtinae) living and extinct : . Department of Zoology. [Mammals] : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive |author= Hinton, Martin Alister Campbell|date= 1926 |publisher= British Museum (Natural History) London |pages=[https://archive.org/details/monographofvoles01brit/page/275 275]–276|access-date=14 December 2014}}

File:Western red-backed vole.jpg

The length of the western red-backed vole ranges from {{cvt|121|-|165|mm}} overall, with a tail between {{cvt|34|-|56|mm}}, hindfoot {{cvt|17|-|21|mm}}, and ear {{cvt|10|-|14|mm}}. The height ranges between {{cvt|18|–|21|mm}}.{{citation needed|date=December 2014}}

The species is closely related to the southern red-backed vole (Clethrionomys gapperi), which lives to the north and east of the range of this species, and is redder, with a more sharply bicolored tail.{{citation needed|date=December 2014}} They are differentiated based on a reddish stripe on the dorsum of the western red-backed vole. The western red-backed vole also has characteristic differences in the anatomy of the hard palate.

It is found in northern California and western Oregon in the United States. The northern limit is defined by the Columbia River, with the range extending south to around {{convert|100|km|mi|abbr=on}} north of the San Francisco Bay. The range extends from the summits of the Cascade Range in the east, to the Pacific Ocean. They live mainly in mature coniferous forest but also inhabit mixed fir-oak forest. They live in the Transition and Canadian life zones, described by Vernon Orlando Bailey in The mammals and life zones of Oregon.

The western red-backed vole lives largely underground in an extensive system of burrows.{{cite book |author=United States. Dept. of the Interior |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SNQX2KKDgFcC&pg=PA368 |title=Recovery plan for the northern spotted owl - draft |publisher=U.S. Dept. of the Interior |year=1991 |pages=366–368}} It feeds primarily on fruiting bodies of hypogeous fungi. These mycorrhizal fungi are the symbionts of the forest trees around it. Rhizopogon vinicolor is one such which is associated with the Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga spp.). Fruiting of the fungus takes place in well decayed timber when the nutrients are becoming exhausted. Because the fruiting bodies are underground, the spores are not liberated into the air as in most fungal species. However, the spores are found in the vole's droppings and are deposited throughout its burrows, thus enabling the fungus to spread and form associations with uninfected trees. It has been found that in a clear-cut forest where all the dead wood and trimmings are removed, the mycorrhiza stops fruiting, the vole population dies out and newly planted trees fail to thrive. This is an example of a three way symbiosis, as the vole gains food from the fungus and spreads its spores, and the fungus gains photosynthetic products from the tree which benefits from the nutrients produced by the fungus.{{cite book|last1=Schultz|first1=Stewart T|last2=Kellerman|first2=Kathy|last3=Megahan|first3=John|title=The Northwest coast : a natural history|date=1998|publisher=Timber Press|location=Portland, OR|isbn=0881924180|pages=275–276}}

The western red-backed vole plays an important role as prey to a number of species, including martens, ermines, and long-tailed weasels. The red tree vole, northern flying squirrel, and western red-backed vole may constitute more than 75% of the northern spotted owls diet.

No fossil remains have been identified yet.

The species breeds between February and November on the slopes of the Cascade Range in north Oregon, as well as all year to the west of the Cascade Range, with 2–7 young per litter and a gestation period of around 18 days.

According to the IUCN, the species conservation status is of "least concern".

In areas where vole populations live in close proximity to industrial areas, voles are used as a biological indicator to monitor environmental contamination, especially persistent organic pollutants such as PCBs which build up in the vole's fatty tissues.{{citation needed|date=December 2014}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Arvicolinae}}

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Category:Clethrionomys

Category:Endemic rodents of the United States

Category:Klamath Mountains

Category:Mammals described in 1890

Category:Taxonomy articles created by Polbot

Category:Taxa named by Clinton Hart Merriam