Animalia > Chordata > Mammalia > Rodentia > Cricetidae > Arvicola > Arvicola sapidus

Arvicola sapidus (southwestern water vole)

Synonyms: Arvicola tenebricus; Microtus musiniani

Wikipedia Abstract

The southwestern water vole or southern water vole (Arvicola sapidus) is a large amphibious vole found in most of France and south-westwards through Spain and Portugal. Although historically considered to be a member of the same species as the Eurasian water vole, Musser and Carleton (2005) considered it distinct enough to warrant full species status. It is listed on the IUCN Red List as vulnerable. It is threatened for many of the same reasons as the northern water vole, and a campaign is currently underway to seek protection for the species, both at a national level and at European Union level.
View Wikipedia Record: Arvicola sapidus

Infraspecies

Arvicola sapidus sapidus
Arvicola sapidus tenebricus

Endangered Species

Status: Vulnerable
View IUCN Record: Arvicola sapidus

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
4
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
45
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 9.08
EDGE Score: 3.7
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  220 grams
Birth Weight [2]  6 grams
Diet [3]  Frugivore, Herbivore
Diet - Fruit [3]  20 %
Diet - Plants [3]  80 %
Forages - Ground [3]  100 %
Female Maturity [2]  51 days
Male Maturity [2]  45 days
Gestation [2]  22 days
Litter Size [2]  5
Litters / Year [2]  3
Maximum Longevity [2]  5 years
Snout to Vent Length [2]  9 inches (22 cm)

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Climate Land Use
Luberon Regional Nature Park V 406572 France  
Paul do Boquilobo Biosphere Reserve Nature Reserve IV 1352 Portugal  
Reserva de la Biosfera de Doñana Biosphere Reserve II 123801 Spain
Reserva de la Biosfera de Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve V 1777 Spain  

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
Mediterranean Basin Algeria, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Portugal, Spain, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey No

Predators

Hieraaetus pennatus (Booted Eagle)[4]
Vipera latastei (Lataste’s Viper)[5]

Consumers

Range Map

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Felisa A. Smith, S. Kathleen Lyons, S. K. Morgan Ernest, Kate E. Jones, Dawn M. Kaufman, Tamar Dayan, Pablo A. Marquet, James H. Brown, and John P. Haskell. 2003. Body mass of late Quaternary mammals. Ecology 84:3403
♦ 2Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 3Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 4FOOD OF THE BOOTED EAGLE (HIERAAETUS PENNATUS) IN CENTRAL SPAIN, José P. Veiga, RAPTOR RESEARCH VOL. 20 (3/4): 120-123
♦ 5Prey availability drives geographic dietary differences of a Mediterranean predator, the Lataste’s viper (Vipera latastei), Xavier Santos, Juan M. Pleguezuelos, José C. Brito, Gustavo A. Llorente, Xavier Parellada & Soumia Fahd, HERPETOLOGICAL JOURNAL 18: 16–22, 2008
♦ 6International Flea Database
♦ 7Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0