Arborimus albipeswhite-footed vole
Geographic Range
Oregon and costal northern California
Habitat
These animals are generally found close to small streams and are often found near fallen trees. They exist from sea-level to over 1000 meters. They are most abundant in deciduous forest, although they have been observed in all types of forest found in their range.
- Terrestrial Biomes
- forest
Physical Description
- Other Physical Features
- endothermic
- bilateral symmetry
Reproduction
White-footed voles reproduce throughout the year. Their mean litter size is 3.0. Little is known about their fetal development or post-natal development.
- Key Reproductive Features
- gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
- sexual
Behavior
White-footed voles forage arboreally as well as on the ground. As such, they are one of the smallest browsing, arboreal mammals. Their predators include owls, skunks, weasels, minks and domestic cats. They are nocturnal.
- Key Behaviors
- motile
Communication and Perception
Food Habits
These voles eat roots and a wide variety of leaves from those of grasses to deciduous trees. They are also known to consume mosses and pollen. Other than parasites (which are presumed to be ingested during grooming) they are not thought to eat any animals.
Conservation Status
White-footed voles are thought to be one of the rarest microtine rodents north of Mexico. They may, however, be more common than currently believed since being arboreal makes them hard to observe or trap from the ground.
-
- IUCN Red List
-
Least Concern
More information
Contributors
Bret Weinstein (author), University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.
Glossary
- Nearctic
-
living in the Nearctic biogeographic province, the northern part of the New World. This includes Greenland, the Canadian Arctic islands, and all of the North American as far south as the highlands of central Mexico.
- bilateral symmetry
-
having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.
- chemical
-
uses smells or other chemicals to communicate
- endothermic
-
animals that use metabolically generated heat to regulate body temperature independently of ambient temperature. Endothermy is a synapomorphy of the Mammalia, although it may have arisen in a (now extinct) synapsid ancestor; the fossil record does not distinguish these possibilities. Convergent in birds.
- forest
-
forest biomes are dominated by trees, otherwise forest biomes can vary widely in amount of precipitation and seasonality.
- motile
-
having the capacity to move from one place to another.
- native range
-
the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.
- sexual
-
reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female
- tactile
-
uses touch to communicate
References
Mammalian Species #494
Walker's Mammals of the World, fifth edition; Nowak, R. ed.; 1991; Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 744-745