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 Vole Species - Approximately 70 vole species have been discovered which include: meadow Vole, Florida salt marsh vole, Arctic voles, southern red-back voles, bank vole, water vole, CA vole and red-backed vole.
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Southern red-back voles prefer coniferous woods near springs, brooks or bogs but they also inhabit deciduous forests. Red-backed voles are primarily herbivores, although they occasionally eat small invertebrates.
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Southern Red-back Voles
The red-backed vole occurs throughout most of Canada and the northern tier of the United States. The range extends south in the Appalachian Mountains to western North Carolina and in the Rocky Mountains to Arizona and New Mexico. Preferring coniferous woods where mossy, rotting logs and brush provides cover, it is seldom far from a water source -- springs, brooks or bogs. They also inhabit deciduous forests -- on the prairies this is usually poplar stands in coulees.
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Southern red-back voles are small, moderately short-tailed voles
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The southern red-backed vole is a small, moderately short-tailed mouse with a reddish back, grayish sides, and a silvery belly. A bright reddish band runs from the forehead to the rump. The fur is generally longer and more dense in winter than in summer. The bicolored tail is dark brown above and whitish below.
Southern red-back voles are primarily herbivores, although they eat small invertebrates infrequently. A diet of fruit, succulent vegetation, and especially fungi that it excavates from the forest floor indicates that dependence of this species on water, which is acquired from both food, and by drinking. In autumn, voles cache seeds, nuts, and roots near their nests for winter consumption, but the bark of deciduous trees and shrubs may be an important winter food when these are unavailable.
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 Pictues of Southern Red-back Voles - A number of pictures of southern red-back voles as well as interesting details about the southern red-backed vole's appearance, characteristics, habitat, feeding habits and breeding cycle.
The most relevant links we could find, placed here free
 eNature
- This page has lots of interesting facts about the habitat and breeding habits of southern red-back voles. www.enature.com
Montana State
- Southern Red-backed Vole Detailed Information - Montana Animal Field Guide. fwp.mt.gov
It makes a round nest of dried grasses, moss, lichens and shredded leaves. This may be hidden under a stump, log, brush pile, in a cavity in a tree or the crotch of a branch some 6 m (20 ft) high. They also use the abandoned burrows of other rodents. In winter, they usually place their nest on the ground under the snow.
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Southern red-back vole foraging
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Male, female, and young southern red-back voles may stay together in the nest, but the male usually moves out as the
young get older. This species has population highs in late summer and fall, then decreases in number during winter.
Maximum longevity is about 20 months, but most individuals do not live more than 10 to 12 months, and few survive two
winters.
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