Pere David's Red-backed Vole

Père David's vole is a small, compact rodent with small rounded ears, a short snout and a short tail. A Taiwanese museum account describes fine, glossy black fur and a body mass of 24–27g, explaining the alternative local name velvet vole. Coat colour can vary geographically from brown to black. These external features give it a darker and more compact appearance than many long-tailed field mice. (National Museum of Natural Science; Cheng et al. 2016)

The vole inhabits dense vegetation on forest floors and along forest margins. Taiwanese populations occur in mountains at 1,400–3,000m, while ecological research also records the species in southern mainland China. It feeds chiefly on green plant parts: roots, stems and leaves, followed by seeds. A mainland study found greater use of leaves and stems in spring and summer and more fruit in autumn and winter. (National Museum of Natural Science; Bao and Zhuge 1986)