Tundra vole


The tundra vole or root vole is a medium-sized vole found in Northern and Central Europe, Asia, and northwestern North America, including Alaska and northwestern Canada. In the western part of the Netherlands, the tundra vole is a relict from the ice age and has developed into the subspecies A. o. arenicola.

Description

The tundra vole has short ears and a short tail. Its fur is yellowish brown with paler sides and white underparts. It is typically about long with a tail and a weight of about.
The tundra vole displays sexual dimorphism, with males being noticeably larger than the females as adults.

Habitat

The tundra vole is found in damp tundra or moist meadows, usually near water.

Behaviour and diet

This species makes runways through the surface growth in warm weather and tunnels through the snow in winter. It feeds on grasses, sedges and seeds. It is active year-round. It also digs burrows where it stores seeds and roots, especially licorice root, for the winter. A dental mesowear analysis of the tundra vole compared to the common vole found that the former consumed more abrasive foods overall.

Breeding

Female voles have three to six litters of three to nine young in a shallow burrow. The tundra vole has its highest fecundity during May and June, but can prolong its mating season all the way until winter.

Subspecies

Subspecies are as follows:

Genetic variability

The large number of subspecies of A. oeconomus is due to the changing environment that they have had to endure since the glacier/ice-age, as well as the isolation of populations. Human interaction also greatly affects the environment of this species. As a result, voles have lost genetic diversity as seen through a lessened heterozygous population for certain genes within separated populations. Roads and structures do not necessarily limit species interaction, but it is the distances created between other communities of voles that limit gene flow.