165.

Balkan Pine Vole

Microtus felteni

French: Campagnol de Felten / German: Felten-Kleinwihimaus / Spanish: Topillo de los Balcanes

Other common names: Felten's Vole

Taxonomy. Pitymys savii felteni Malec & Storch, 1963, near Trnovo-Magarevo, Mt. Babuna, Pelister Mountains, Macedonia.

Microtus felteni is in subgenus Terricola and thomas: species group. It was classified in genus Pitymys . Monotypic.

Distribution. S Serbia, Kosovo, W Macedonia, Albania, and NW Greece.

Descriptive notes. Head-body 83-105 mm, tail 23-39 mm; weight 16-28 g. The Balkan Pine Vole is small, with short tail 25-33% of head-body length, short ears, and dwarf eyes. Females have two pairs of inguinal nipples. Fur is long and soft, dark brown on back and gray or silver on belly. Skull is delicate, flattened, and low, with expanded zygomatic arches and wide interorbital region. Upper incisors are only slightly proodont. M? is of simple structure, with only three inner salient angles.

Habitat. Open habitats such as arable fields, meadows, shrubs, forest edge, and clearings at elevations of 40-2050 m.

Food and Feeding. No information.

Breeding. Reproductively active female Balkan Pine Voles were collected in June-October. Three pregnant females had two embryos each.

Activity patterns. The Balkan Pine Vole is semi-fossorial and predominantly nocturnal. It is active year-round.

Movements, Home range and Social organization. No information.

Status and Conservation. Classified as Data Deficient on The IUCN Red List. Overall distribution is fragmented and only ¢.40,000 km?. The Balkan Pine Vole is little known and lives at low densities. In Albania, it is 30 times less abundant than the sympatric Thomas’s Pine Vole ( M. thomasi).

Bibliography. Bego et al. (2008), Niethammer (1982¢), Petrov et al. (1976), Shenbrot & Krasnov (2005), Thanou etal. (2012).