Voles and lemmings (Arvicolinae) of the Palearctic region
Voles and lemmings (Arvicolinae) of the Palearctic region.
Boris Kryštufek & Georgy Shenbrot
Voles and lemmings are the most numerous group of Palaearctic rodents by species, so they are often the subject of basic and applied research. Combining the advances of genomics with traditional taxonomy, the present work is an authoritative and up-to-date guide to the taxonomy of an animal group of interest to epidemiologists, biostratigraphers, zooarchaeologists, evolutionary biologists, population ecologists, biosystematists, conservation biologists, museum curators, and researchers in various other biological fields. . The text is accompanied by 331 illustrations and more than a thousand references. Morphological features and detailed distribution maps are given for each of the 128 species. The book will provide the user with an in-depth and critical interpretation of the relationships between species of voles and lemmings. It will make it easier to understand the taxonomic changes that are still common in this group of rodents.
The book is published as a pdf, which can be freely downloaded here.
6th World Lagomorph Conference
The 6th World Lagomorph Conference will take place from 4-8th July 2022 in Montpellier, France.
The World Lagomorph Conference, which takes place every four years, brings together researchers and experts on rabbits, hares, and pikas from all over the world. This quadriennal meeting organised on behalf of the World Lagomorph Society is a great opportunity to share and exchange information on the natural history, ecology, evolution, behaviour, physiology, genetics, morphology, diseases, management and conservation of wild lagomorphs.
The website for the conference can be found here: https://lagomorph2022.sciencesconf.org/ and the conference is already open for the submission of abstracts.
Alpine shrew (Sorex alpinus) is still living in the Pyrenees
This is an interesting and very important story. Until now the occurrence in the Pyrenees of the Alpine Shrew (Sorex alpinus) has been documented only by a few, rather old data (1878-1930) from the Spanish side of the mountains (three specimens). Since then it has been considered extinct (missing). However, this year (2021) I was lucky enough to find the pdf.file of a book about mammals of the NP Ordesa y Monte Perdido (Ferrer E.W., 2019: Mamíferos del Parque Nacional de Ordesa y Monte Perdido - Ediciones Prames S.L., Zaragoza, 267pp.) and, to my surprise, I saw on pages 58 and 244 photos of the Alpine Shrew, presented as an unknown species; this individual was caught in autumn 2012.
Being sufficiently familiar with this shrew species in the Czech Republic I can, without doubt, state that it is the Alpine Shrew. The external features are quite typical – uniform grey-black colouration, overlong tail, very small eyes, light "meat"-coloured feet, the shape of the head and rostrum etc. Also, other experts on this species agree with this view, e.g. R. Kraft (München) and V. Vohralík (Prague). Therefore, it is my belief that the recent occurrence of the Alpine Shrew in the Pyrenees can be proven. Based on this finding, the occurrence of its relict population(s) in the Pyrenees deserves more attention.
Miloš Andĕra, Czech Republic (EMMA 2 national coordinator)
Per Ole Syvertsen
We are saddened to report the untimely death of our coordinator for Norway, Per Ole Syvertsen, at the age of 62. Per Ole will be known to all who attended the Eurobats Advisory Committee meetings and he was also present at the EMMA meeting in Prague, 2018.
Per Ole was the curator of the natural history department of the Helgeland Museum and was based in Mo i Rana.
Citizen Science in Ireland
There is growing interest across Europe in developing the involvement of volunteers to collect biological observations. A common part of this development is the setting up of a data portal, where observers can submit their biological records for verification and adding to a national database. A portal has been developed in Ireland by the National Biodiversity Data Centre and this video give an introduction to the system.