Heather Vole - Phenacomys intermedius
Global Rank:
G5
State Rank:
S4
Agency Status
USFWS:
none
USFS:
none
BLM:
none
CFWCS Tier:
3
General Description
The adult heather vole is 4 1/2 to 6 inches long, weighing a little over an ounce. It is gray with a brown to dark-brown cast to the fur, white face, and silvery belly.
Distribution
Montana Range
Observations in Montana: 104
Montana CountiesBeaverhead, Broadwater, Carbon, Deer Lodge, Flathead, Gallatin, Glacier, Granite, Judith Basin, Lake, Lewis and Clark, Liberty, Lincoln, Meagher, Mineral, Missoula, Park, Powell, Ravalli, Sanders, Sweet Grass, Teton
Habitat
Most common in subalpine spruce-fir forest w/ evergreen shrub ground cover, also in timberline krummholz, alpine tundra. Sometimes in montane yellowpine-doug fir forests w/ bearberry-twinflower understory (Hoffmann and Pattie 1968).
Food Habits
Prepares caches of food for winter - twigs and berries (Banfield 1974).
Ecology
Winter nest is a hollow sphere of twigs & lichens about 6 inches diam., above ground in protected spot. Summer nest 4-10 in. underground (Banfield 1974). Does not tend to construct runways. Red feces.
Citations & Sources
- Burt, W. H. and R. P. Grossenheider. 1964. A field guide to the mammals. 2nd edition. The Peterson Field Guide Series. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, MA.
- Foresman, K.R. 2001. The wild mammals of Montana. Special Publication No. 12. American Society of Mammalogists
- Kritzman, Ellen B. 1977. Little mammals of the Pacific Northwest. Pacific Search Press, Seattle, WA.
- Zeveloff, S. I. 1988. Mammals of the Intermountain West. Univ. of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, Utah.