California vole
[4] The body is covered with cinnamon to tawny olive fur, ticked with occasional darker hairs, and fading to a medium grey on the underside.Preferred foods include wild oats, ryegrass, and brome grass, although all of these are introductions from Europe, and therefore cannot represent the animal's original diet.[7] They can become an agricultural pest, causing widespread damage especially to fields of artichokes, but also to crops such as alfalfa, potatoes, and asparagus.[4] Because the California vole is relatively common and widespread, it has numerous natural predators, including hawks, owls, egrets, long-tailed weasels, coyotes, skunks, mountain lions and garter snakes.The voles construct nests of dried grass within their burrows; these have a single entrance, and are typically between 7 and 15 cm (2.8 and 5.9 in) below the surface.[9] The voles are active above ground primarily to find food, reaching the seeds on high grasses by standing on their hind legs and clipping the stems with their teeth.Indeed, matings between northern and southern subspecies of California vole do not always produce fertile offspring, with male hybrids in particular typically being infertile.
Conservation statusLeast ConcernIUCN 3.1Scientific classificationEukaryotaAnimaliaChordataMammaliaRodentiaCricetidaeArvicolinaeMicrotusPitymysBinomial nameCaliforniaOregonwhiskersscent glandsEl RosarioBaja CaliforniaEugenegrasslandmarshlandsavannahSan FranciscoHumboldt County, CaliforniaSierra de JuárezMonterey BayKern CountyCDFG special concernMojave DesertAlameda CountyContra Costa CountyendangeredPanamint RangeLos AngelesWhite Mountainsred-tailed hawkherbivorousgrassessedgeswild oatsryegrassbrome grassartichokesalfalfapotatoesasparagusegretslong-tailed weaselscoyotesskunksmountain lionsgarter snakescrepuscularnocturnalgopherpolygynouscopulatory pluginduced ovulationGestationweanedMexican volemontane voleIUCN Red List of Threatened SpeciesWilson, D. E.Johns Hopkins University PressWayback MachineBibcodeEutheriaEuarchontogliresArvicoliniArvicolaEuropean water vole (A. amphibius)Southwestern water vole (A. sapidus)Montane water vole (A. scherman)MicrotiniAlexandromysClarke's vole (M. clarkei)Evorsk vole (M. evoronensis)Reed vole (M. fortis)Gerbe's vole (M. gerbei)Taiwan vole (M. kikuchii)Lacustrine vole (M. limnophilus)Maximowicz's vole (M. maximowiczii)Middendorff's vole (M. middendorffi)Mongolian vole (M. mongolicus)Japanese grass vole (M. montebelli)Muisk vole (M. mujanensis)Tundra vole (M. oeconomus)Sakhalin vole (M. sachalinensis)ChionomysCaucasian snow vole (C. gud)European snow vole (C. nivalis)Robert's snow vole (C. roberti)HyperacriusTrue's vole (H. fertilis)Murree vole (H. wynnei)LasiopodomysBrandt's vole (L. brandtii)Plateau vole (L. fuscus)Mandarin vole (L. mandarinus)LemmiscusSagebrush vole (L. curtatus)Field vole (M. agrestis)Anatolian vole (M. anatolicus)Common vole (M. arvalis)Cabrera's vole (M. cabrerae)Doğramaci's vole (M. dogramacii)Günther's vole (M. guentheri)Tien Shan vole (M. ilaeus)Persian vole (M. irani)Kerman vole (M. kermanensis)Southern vole (M. levis)Paradox vole (M. paradoxus)Qazvin vole (M. qazvinensis)Schidlovsky's vole (M. schidlovskii)Social vole (M. socialis)European pine vole (M. subterraneus)Transcaspian vole (M. transcaspicus)BlanfordimysAfghan vole (B. afghanus)Bucharian vole (B. bucharicus)Juniper vole (B. juldaschi)TerricolaBavarian pine vole (M. bavaricus)