Distribution of the European water vole Arvicola amphibius (Linnaeus, 1758) in Mazowsze and southern Podlasie

Grzegorz Lesiński,Przemysław Stolarz,Dagny Krauze-Gryz,Marek Kowalski,Jakub Gryz,Jerzy Romanowski

doi:10.3161/00159301ff2017.60.2.129

Abstract

The paper presents distribution of the European water vole Arvicola amphibius (Linnaeus, 1758) in Mazowsze and southern Podlasie in areas situated within a 120-kilometer radius from Warsaw. Data published so far and unpublished results from analyses of the diet of three common species of owls were set up. The rodent is rare in the study area, especially when compared with southern, western and far northern Poland. Its largest population lives in Kampinos Forest, from where many localities are known. In other parts of the study area it is present locally. Only 14 localities were known outside Kampinos Forest in the years 2000–2017. It is even absent from large areas rich in various water bodies like e.g. Mazowiecki and Chojnowski Landscape Parks or Bolimowska Forest. Rarity of the European water vole was confirmed by 235 large samples of owls’ food (at least 100 of vertebrate prey in each) equally distributed across Mazowsze and southern Podlasie, in which this species was not found.

Highlights

Taxonomic status of Polish water voles Arvicola sp. is still not clear
In the years 2000–2017 the presence of the rodent was confirmed in Kampinos Forest, where it appeared rather common and numerous
It was found in western Mazowsze (Głuchów, Popień, Drobin, Leszczyny Kolonia, Jeżewo), at the southern edge of Warsaw (Wilanów), in Kozienice Forest, in southern Podlasie (Nowa Sucha, Kopcie, Suchożebry and surroundings of Siedlce)

Summary

Introduction

Taxonomic status of Polish water voles Arvicola sp. is still not clear. Some of subspecies of previously distinguished species – A. terrestris (Linnaeus, 1758) – in the last decades have been considered as separate species. It cannot be excluded that in Poland there are two species: European water vole A. amphibius (Linnaeus, 1758) and montane water vole A. scherman (Shaw, 1801) The range of the latter covers the area of south part of the country (the region of Carpathian Mountains) where the subspecies A. terrestris scherman was recorded (Cassola 2016). Populations of this species show different habitat preferences (ecotype) than A. amphibius from the central and north Poland (Cais 1974). The range of the European water vole covers most of the area of Poland, especially lowlands Many localities of this species known till the year 1980 mainly were found during analyses of the owls’ pellets (Raczyński 1983). The number of localities of the European water vole in central Poland has not increased recently (Zub 2017)

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Conclusion