Alticola

Gebirgswühlmäuse ( Alticola )

The Gebirgswühlmäuse ( Alticola ) are a genus of voles, which are among the most common and important rodents Asian mountain ranges. They occupy the same ecological niche as the European snow vole ( Microtus nivalis), but are not closely related with this.

These voles have a body length 8-14 cm, added 2 to 5 cm tail. The coat color is gray or brown on the upper side and lower side white. They inhabit altitudes 900-5700 m, making them among the highest living mammals.

To adapt to the lifestyle in narrow crevices of the skulls of the Flathead Vole is significantly flattened. It is most common and the most widespread of all kinds. In the Central Asian mountain ranges such as the Altai she lives both in the barren heights above the tree line and in the deeper larch forests.

Replace all Gebirgswühlmäuse autumn towards the thin summer coat through a thick winter fur from. This skin change is in the Flathead Vole already mid-August a.

System

Usually the Gebirgswühlmäuse be divided into the following three sub- genera and 13 species:

  • Subgenus Alticola Royles Gebirgswühlmaus, Alticola roylei, Indian Himalaya
  • White-tailed Gebirgswühlmaus, Alticola albicauda, Kashmir
  • Central Kashmir Vole, Alticola Montosa, Kashmir
  • Silver Gebirgswühlmaus, Alticola argentatus, Central Asia
  • Tuva - Silberwühlmaus, Alticola tuvinicus, west Mongolia, south-central Siberia
  • Olkhon Vole, Alticola olchonensis, Lake Baikal region
  • Mongolian Silberwühlmaus, Alticola semicanus, Mongolia
  • Gobi - Altai Gebirgswühlmaus, Alticola barakshin, Mongolia, Tuva
  • Stoliczkas Gebirgswühlmaus, Alticola stoliczkanus, Xinjiang, Tibet
  • Flathead Vole, Alticola strelzowi, Central Asia
  • Big-eared Vole, Alticola macrotis, Mongolia
  • Lemming Vole, Alticola lemminus, north-east. Siberia
  • Alticola fetisovi, Lake Baikal region

The subgenus Aschizomys was also treated as a separate genus or as a subgenus of Rötelmäuse. Other schools of thought believe that the Japanese Rötelmäuse ( Phaulomys ) are to be classified as a subgenus of Gebirgswühlmäuse.

Altai Mountains
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