Bank Voles in the Garden

This year, like last, we have Bank Voles in the garden. They can be spotted in the afternoon and early evening running between the shrubs and flowers and eating my wife's vegetables (no brussel sprouts for Christmas this year--they have nibbled off all the shoots). Fallen plums have been a firm, almost irresistible, favourite.

Bank Voles are very approachable, not diving for cover until the human inhabitants get to within a couple of feet. They run behind chairs and the legs of the occupants. I have seen pet shop advertisements from the 1930s to the 1950s for Bank Voles and they had a reputation for being relatively easy to tame.

Last week Number Two son had his camera nearby and took the still and video shown.

The Bank Voles reach their highest population in late summer, after rounds of breeding from animals that survive winter as well as from the young of the succeeding generations.

The old and long-established scientific name of Clethrionomys glareolus has been replaced in the past fifteen years or so by Myodes glareolus on the grounds, apparently, that Myodes has historical priority—the sort of change for change's sake that really annoys me and demonstrates why the international rules of nomenclature are viewed with a mixture of incredulity and bemusement by experimental biologists. The change was controversial and the paper below gives some idea of the type of argument and evidence employed.

Carleton MD, Gardner AJ, Pavlinov IY, Musser GG. 2014. The valid generic name for red-backed voles (Muroidea: Cricetidae: Arvicolinae): restatement of the case for Myodes Pallas, 1811. Journal of Mammalogy 95, 943-959.