Western Red-backed Vole

Myodes californicus

The Western Red-backed Vole inhabits the humid coastal forests of the Pacific Northwest and is closely associated with large rotting logs and fallen trees that serve as travel corridors and feeding platforms. It has a distinctive chestnut dorsal stripe over a grayish body. Its diet is unusually heavy in truffles—underground fungi—making it an important disperser of hypogeous fungal spores.

Habitat

Old-growth and mature Pacific Coast forests

Diet

Truffles, fungi, lichens, berries, and seeds

How common

Uncommon

Not certain it is a Western Red-backed Vole? What animal is this? walks through what to check first and the lookalikes that catch people out.