[040] Arvicola amphibius, Water Vole
Introduction
Arvicola amphibius, the Water Vole, is a small, semi-aquatic mammal that used to be common and widespread through Britain but has been declining in numbers for half a century or more.
Strictly speaking it is the European Water Vole or the Northern Water Vole and it is often informally called a water rat – as immortalized in The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame.
There are two other species of Arvicola called water voles found in Europe and a slightly larger, similar Water Vole in North America.
I was keen to include this species but my stock of pictures is very limited
Taxonomy
Kingdom – Animals
Phylum – Chordates
Class – Mammals
Order – Rodents
Family – Cricetidae (Hamsters, Voles, Lemmings and American Rats and Mice)
Subfamily – Arvicolinae (Voles and others)
Genus – Arvicola
Scientific Name – Arvicola amphibius
The placing of Arvicolinae within Cricetidae is disputed. Some authorities put them under Muridae in common with European rats and mice.
Linnaeus
Modern scientific Taxonomy owes its origin to Carl von Linné (1707-78) usually known by his Latin name, Linnaeus. (In those days Latin was the universal language of science and education.) He defined the system and gave many species the scientific names that we still use today.
He didn’t get everything right and he defined two species of water vole in the same work on the same page. Arvicola terrestris and A amphibius are now recognized as the same species. It used to be called A terrestris but the first person to resolve the ambiguity picked A amphibius, which has now become its official name.
(Somehow it also has the obsolete synonyms Mus amphibius and Mus terrestris, also both attributed to Linnaeus. Perhaps he thought they were mice before he separated them into Arvicola.)
Name
Vole is an Orkney (from Norse) dialect word for a mouse. Before about 1800 all voles were called mice.
Arvicola, from Latin roots, means ‘Field inhabitant,’ but of course voles used to be called field mice and they still are in some countries.
Description
The technical definition of voles depends mostly on the structure of their molar teeth.
They in some ways similar to rats but they have rounder noses, deep brown fur, chubby faces, short fuzzy ears and hairy paws and tail.
Habitat
They live in riverside burrows and prefer calm, slow moving water. In Britain their habitat is declining and there are some attempts to try to reintroduce them.
In places such as central France they live in large numbers and cause excessive damage to crops.
Other Notes
The only place I have ever seen this animal is at the WWT Slimbridge site. They are more likely to be out in the sun.
I have to mention The Wind in the Willows, a novel written for children, based around four anthropomorphised animals called Mole, Rat, Toad and Badger. Rat is, of course a water rat or what we have come to know as a European Water Vole. The book is a mixture of camaraderie, adventure and morality. I won’t give away the plot but it does have a happy ending.
See also
We will also meet two other rodents, [232] the House Mouse and [297] the Brown Rat.
We won’t see a Mole (never seen above ground) or a Badger (now being exterminated in large numbers by politicians to please farmers who mistakenly blame them for the spread bovine tuberculosis.) Toad will slip in disguised as a frog in [295].
[I hope all my non-English speaking readers understand that ‘mice’ is the plural of ‘mouse.’]
The Species of Britain 