The singing vole (''Microtus miurus''), is a medium-sized
vole
Voles are small rodents that are relatives of lemmings and hamsters, but with a stouter body; a longer, hairy tail; a slightly rounder head; smaller eyes and ears; and differently formed molars (high-crowned with angular cusps instead of low-c ...
found in northwestern
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
, including
Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...
and northwestern
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
.
Physical characteristics
Singing voles have short ears, often concealed by their long fur, and a short tail. The fur is soft and dense, especially in winter. They vary in color from pale tawny to pale grey, with buff-colored patches running from the undersides of the ears along the flanks to the rump, and buff or ochre underparts. The fur is lightly ticked with black
guard hair
Guard hair or overhair is the outer layer of hair of most mammals, which overlay the fur. Guard hairs are long and coarse and protect the rest of the pelage (fur) from abrasion and frequently from moisture. They are visible on the surface of the fu ...
s, but these are so sparse that have little effect on the visible coloration of the animal. The fur is greyer in color during the winter. The paws have sharp, narrow claws, which are largely hidden by fur.
Adult singing voles range from in length, not counting the short, , tail. They can weigh anything from , depending on their exact age and recent diet. There is no significant difference in size or coloration between the two sexes. Male singing voles possess modified
sebaceous gland
A sebaceous gland is a microscopic exocrine gland in the skin that opens into a hair follicle to secrete an oily or waxy matter, called sebum, which lubricates the hair and skin of mammals. In humans, sebaceous glands occur in the greatest number ...
s on their flanks, which are used in
scent mark
In ethology, territory is the sociographical area that an animal consistently defends against conspecific competition (or, occasionally, against animals of other species) using agonistic behaviors or (less commonly) real physical aggression. A ...
ing; these glands have also been noted in some
lactating females. The penis is relatively long and narrow, with a complex
baculum
The baculum (also penis bone, penile bone, or ''os penis'', ''os genitale'' or ''os priapi'') is a bone found in the penis of many placental mammals. It is absent from the human penis, but present in the penises of some primates, such as the ...
.
[
Singing voles can be distinguished from other neighboring vole species by their shorter tails and the color of their underparts (other local voles have grey underparts).
]
Distribution and habitat
Singing voles are native to Alaska and north-western Canada. They are found from the western coasts, across southern and northern Alaska, but avoid the Alaska Peninsula
The Alaska Peninsula (also called Aleut Peninsula or Aleutian Peninsula, ale, Alasxix̂; Sugpiaq: ''Aluuwiq'', ''Al'uwiq'') is a peninsula extending about to the southwest from the mainland of Alaska and ending in the Aleutian Islands. The ...
, the central regions, and much of the northern coast. In the east, they reach as far as the Mackenzie Mountains
The Mackenzie Mountains are a Canadian mountain range forming part of the Yukon-Northwest Territories boundary between the Liard and Peel rivers. The range is named in honour of Canada's second prime minister, Alexander Mackenzie. Nahanni Nat ...
, being found throughout the Yukon
Yukon (; ; formerly called Yukon Territory and also referred to as the Yukon) is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three territories. It also is the second-least populated province or territory in Canada, with a population of 43,964 as ...
, aside from the northern coasts, and in border regions of the neighboring provinces.[
Four subspecies are currently recognised:
* ''Microtus miurus miurus'' - ]Kenai Peninsula
The Kenai Peninsula ( Dena'ina: ''Yaghenen'') is a large peninsula jutting from the coast of Southcentral Alaska. The name Kenai (, ) is derived from the word "Kenaitze" or "Kenaitze Indian Tribe", the name of the Native Athabascan Alaskan tribe ...
* ''Microtus miurus cantator'' - south-eastern Alaska and southern Yukon
* ''Microtus miurus miuriei'' - south-western Alaska
* ''Microtus miurus oreas'' - northern Alaska and Yukon
Singing voles are found in tundra
In physical geography, tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. The term ''tundra'' comes through Russian (') from the Kildin Sámi word (') meaning "uplands", "treeless moun ...
regions above the tree line
The tree line is the edge of the habitat at which trees are capable of growing. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually cold temperatures, extreme snowp ...
. They avoid the most extreme environments within these regions, preferring open, well-drained slopes and rock flats with abundant shrubs and sedges. They feed on arctic plants such as lupin
''Lupinus'', commonly known as lupin, lupine, or regionally bluebonnet etc., is a genus of plants in the legume family Fabaceae. The genus includes over 199 species, with centers of diversity in North and South America. Smaller centers occur ...
es, knotweed Knotweed is a common name for plants in several genera in the family Polygonaceae. Knotweed may refer to:
* ''Fallopia''
* ''Persicaria''
* ''Polygonum''
* ''Reynoutria japonica
''Reynoutria japonica'', synonyms ''Fallopia japonica'' and ''Poly ...
, sedge
The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus ''Carex'' wit ...
s, horsetail
''Equisetum'' (; horsetail, snake grass, puzzlegrass) is the only living genus in Equisetaceae, a family of ferns, which reproduce by spores rather than seeds.
''Equisetum'' is a "living fossil", the only living genus of the entire subclass Eq ...
s, and willow
Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist s ...
s. Their main predators include wolverine
The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for "gluttony, glutton"), also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is ...
s, Arctic fox
The Arctic fox (''Vulpes lagopus''), also known as the white fox, polar fox, or snow fox, is a small fox native to the Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and common throughout the Arctic tundra biome. It is well adapted to living in co ...
es, stoat
The stoat (''Mustela erminea''), also known as the Eurasian ermine, Beringian ermine and ermine, is a mustelid native to Eurasia and the northern portions of North America. Because of its wide circumpolar distribution, it is listed as Least Conc ...
s, skua
The skuas are a group of predatory seabirds with seven species forming the genus ''Stercorarius'', the only genus in the family Stercorariidae. The three smaller skuas, the long-tailed skua, the Arctic skua, and the pomarine skua are called jae ...
s, hawk
Hawks are bird of prey, birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. They are widely distributed and are found on all continents except Antarctica.
* The subfamily Accipitrinae includes goshawks, sparrowhawks, sharp-shinned hawks and others. Th ...
s, and owl
Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...
s.[
]
Behavior
Singing voles are at least semi-colonial animals, sharing burrows between family groups. They are active throughout the day, with no clear preference for sunlight or night time. They make runways through the surface growth, connecting feeding grounds to burrow entrances, although these are not as clear as those made by some other vole species. They also sometimes forage in low bushes.
The burrows consist of a number of chambers, many of them used to store food for the winter, connected by very narrow passages. These passages, typically around wide, make it difficult for any animal larger than a vole to pass through, and thus help protect against predators such as weasel
Weasels are mammals of the genus ''Mustela'' of the family Mustelidae. The genus ''Mustela'' includes the least weasels, polecats, stoats, ferrets and European mink. Members of this genus are small, active predators, with long and slender bo ...
s. The burrows run horizontally, no more than below ground level, and can extend for as far as from the tunnel entrance.[
Unusually among voles, in addition to storing food, such as roots and ]rhizome
In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow hori ...
s, underground, singing voles also often leave stacks of grasses out on rocks to dry. Often, these stacks are instead constructed on low-lying branches, or on exposed tree roots, helping to keep them dry. The stacks of grasses slowly dry out, producing hay
Hay is grass, legumes, or other herbaceous plants that have been cut and dried to be stored for use as animal fodder, either for large grazing animals raised as livestock, such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep, or for smaller domesticat ...
, and may include other food materials, such as horsetails or lupines. The voles begin to construct the stacks around August, and by the winter, they may have reached considerable size, with piles of up to in height having been reported. The piles are a source of nutritious food through the winter, although they are liable to be raided by other animals.[
This species gets its common name from its warning call, a high-pitched ]trill
TRILL (Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links) is an Internet Standard implemented by devices called TRILL switches. TRILL combines techniques from bridging and routing, and is the application of link-state routing to the VLAN-aware custom ...
, usually given from the entrance of its burrow.
Reproduction
Singing voles breed from May to September, and each female can give birth to up to three litters in a breeding season. Gestation lasts 21 days, and typically results in the birth of eight young, although litters of between 6 and 14 young have been reported.[ Since, like other voles, the female has only eight ]teat
A teat is the projection from the mammary glands of mammals from which milk flows or is ejected for the purpose of feeding young. In many mammals the teat projects from the udder. The number of teats varies by mammalian species and often corre ...
s, litters of more than eight young are unlikely to survive.
The young weigh at birth, and grow rapidly during the first three weeks of life. They are weaned
Weaning is the process of gradually introducing an infant human or another mammal to what will be its adult diet while withdrawing the supply of its mother's milk.
The process takes place only in mammals, as only mammals produce milk. The infan ...
at around four weeks, by which time the mother is often ready to produce a new litter. Although females generally do not reproduce until their second year, males may be sexually active within as little as a month of birth.[
In the wild, many singing voles do not survive even their first winter. In captivity, they have been reported to live for up to 112 weeks, although the median lifespan is only 43 weeks.][Morrison P., Dieterich R., Preston D. 1977b. Longevity and mortality in 15 rodent species and subspecies maintained in laboratory colonies. ''Acta Theriologica''. 22:317–335]
Evolution
The oldest known fossils of singing voles date from the Ionian, around 300,000 years ago, and were found near Fairbanks
Fairbanks is a home rule city and the borough seat of the Fairbanks North Star Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. Fairbanks is the largest city in the Interior region of Alaska and the second largest in the state. The 2020 Census put the po ...
. During the Ice Ages
An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gree ...
of the late Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...
, singing voles may have been much more widely distributed than today, and fossils have been reported from as far south as Iowa
Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...
, which was then probably similar in climate to present-day Alaska. The closest living relative of the Singing Vole today is the insular vole
The insular vole or St. Matthew Island vole (''Microtus abbreviatus'') is a species of rodent in the family Cricetidae. It occurs only on St. Matthew Island and the adjacent Hall Island, in Alaska. On these Bering Sea islands, insular voles li ...
, which is found only on two small islands off the west coast of Alaska, and probably diverged as those islands were cut off from the Beringia
Beringia is defined today as the land and maritime area bounded on the west by the Lena River in Russia; on the east by the Mackenzie River in Canada; on the north by 72 degrees north latitude in the Chukchi Sea; and on the south by the tip ...
land bridge by rising sea levels.[
]
References
External links
*
*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1761683
Singing
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...
Arctic land animals
Mammals of the Arctic
Mammals of Canada
Mammals of the United States
Rodents of North America
Fauna of Alaska
Mammals described in 1901
Least concern biota of North America
Least concern biota of the United States