The Identity of Gray Voles (Cricetidae, Rodentia) from Bolshoi Shantar Island, Sea of Okhotsk, with Gromov’s Vole (Alexandromys gromovi Vorontsov et al. 1988)

Abstract

The identification of gray voles from Bolshoi Shantar Island with Gromov’s vole from the mainland is confirmed using molecular data. The increased diversity of East Asian voles in the “Shantar corner” of the Sea of Okhotsk might be accounted for by counter range expansions of the “southern” and “northern” vole forms in different periods of the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. Their modern marginal populations in the territories studied can therefore be regarded as being relict in character.