The grey red-backed vole or the grey-sided vole (''Myodes rufocanus'') is a species of vole. An adult grey red-backed vole weighs 20-50 grams. This species ranges across northern Eurasia, including northern

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, the northern Korean Peninsula, and the islands of Sakhalin and

Hokkaidō is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel. The la ...

. It is larger and longer-legged than the northern red-backed vole (''Myodes rutilus''), which covers a similar range and it is also

sympatric In biology, two related species or populations are considered sympatric when they exist in the same geographic area and thus frequently encounter one another. An initially interbreeding population that splits into two or more distinct species sh ...

with the Norwegian lemming (''Lemmus lemmus'').

Description

The grey red-backed vole has a reddish-coloured back and grey sides. It has a head and body length of and a tail length of . It can be distinguished from the

bank vole The bank vole (''Myodes 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 in length. The bank vole is found in much of Europe an ...

by its larger size and distinctive reddish back and from the northern red-backed vole by its larger size, longer legs and relatively longer tail. Unlike some other species of vole in the genus '' Myodes'', the molar teeth of adults are rooted in the jaws.

Distribution and habitat

The grey red-backed vole is native to northern Europe and Asia. Its range extends from Norway, Sweden and Finland eastwards through northern Russia to the Kamchatka Peninsula. It includes the Ural Mountains, the

Altai Mountains The Altai Mountains (), also spelled Altay Mountains, are a mountain range in Central Asia, Central and East Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan converge, and where the rivers Irtysh and Ob River, Ob have their headwaters. The m ...

, northern Korea,

Sakhalin Island Sakhalin ( rus, Сахали́н, r=Sakhalín, p=səxɐˈlʲin; ja, 樺太 ''Karafuto''; zh, c=, p=Kùyèdǎo, s=库页岛, t=庫頁島; Manchu: ᠰᠠᡥᠠᠯᡳᠶᠠᠨ, ''Sahaliyan''; Orok: Бугата на̄, ''Bugata nā''; Nivkh: ...

, Japan, northern Mongolia and China. Its altitude range extends from sea level to in Scandinavia and to in the

Khangai Mountains The Khangai Mountains ( mn, Хангайн нуруу, Hangain nuruu, ); form a mountain range, range in central Mongolia, some west of Ulaanbaatar. Name Two provinces of Mongolia are named after the Khangai mountains: Arkhangai (North Khangai) ...

in Mongolia. Its typical habitat is dense undergrowth or rocky areas in coniferous or birch forests, often near rivers, but it is also found in clear cut areas of forests, rough grassland, subarctic shrubby heathland and dry peat bogs.

Biology

The grey red-backed vole feeds on grasses and small herbs, the leaves and shoots of sub-shrubs and berries. It prefers the bilberry (''Vaccinium myrtillus'') to the

northern crowberry ''Empetrum nigrum'', crowberry, black crowberry, or, in western Alaska, blackberry, is a flowering plant species in the heather family Ericaceae with a near circumboreal distribution in the Northern Hemisphere. It is usually dioecious, but th ...

(''Empetrum nigrum ssp. hermaphroditum'') which contains unpalatable phenolic substances. In tundra regions, this vole exhibits outbreaks when its numbers increase substantially. These occur in a four to five-year population cycle the reasons for which are not fully understood but which may reflect changes in the abundance of certain specialised predators. Lemmings have similar but more violent population explosions. These happen in the same years as vole outbreaks, but occur less frequently. This is partly because lemmings continue to breed during the winter months while populations of grey red-backed voles decline during the winter.

Status

The grey red-backed vole is listed by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

as being of " Least Concern". This is because it is a common species with a very wide range and faces no particular threats. Populations vary cyclically but may be declining somewhat in

Fennoscandia __NOTOC__ Fennoscandia (Finnish language, Finnish, Swedish language, Swedish and no, Fennoskandia, nocat=1; russian: Фенноскандия, Fennoskandiya) or the Fennoscandian Peninsula is the geographical peninsula in Europe, which includes ...

, possibly due to changes in forestry practice.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q844638 Mammals of Asia Myodes Mammals described in 1846 Mammals of Japan