Chionomys nivalis

The field vole of snows ( Chionomys nivalis ) is a small rodent of the family of the Muridae.

Description

It presents a body more lengthened than the other field voles, its tail and its ears are also longer. It is characterized by a thick gray peeling drawing on the brown one on the back and much more clearly (gray-white) under the belly.

Biology

The field vole of snows attends the stony zones, the falls, the clear forests or the mountain pastures of the European mountains. It is active all the year, with an activity preferably night or twilight. It digs not very deep galleries and constitutes a dry grass nest and stores food. Its food mode is only containing plants, of seeds and bays.

Reproduction

The females in general have 2 ranges of 3 small between May and September. Gestation lasts approximately 3 weeks. Longevity is just higher than one year (13 month).

Distribution

The field vole of snows is a species of the mountainous areas of Europe average and southernmost, the Middle East and of minor Asia. In France one meets it in the the Pyrenees, the Massif Central and the the Alps but also, at lower altitude, on the Mediterranean circumference and in the valley of the the Rhone. It was observed with: 4700 m in the Alps (record for a mammal in France).

Source

Marc Duquet, Herve Maurin, Patrick Haffner: Inventory of the fauna of France Nathan, 2005,

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