Western red-backed vole

Western red-backed vole
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Cricetidae
Subfamily: Arvicolinae
Genus: Clethrionomys
Species:
C. californicus
Binomial name
Clethrionomys californicus
(Merriam, 1890)
Distribution of the Western red-backed vole
Synonyms
  • Myodes californicus
  • M. mazama (Merriam, 1897)
  • M. obscurus (Merriam, 1897)

The western red-backed vole (Clethrionomys californicus) is a species of vole in the family Cricetidae. It is found in California and Oregon in the United States and lives mainly in coniferous forest. The body color is chestnut brown, or brown mixed with a considerable quantity of black hair gradually lightening on the sides and grading into a buffy-gray belly, with an indistinct reddish stripe on the back and a bicolored tail about half as long as the head and body.