New York’s 38 rock vole records draw two clean mountain clusters. Essex County in the High Peaks holds 17, with 11 of those from Whiteface Mountain alone. Greene and Ulster counties in the Catskills add 16 more, strung along wilderness areas like Indian Head and Slide Mountain. In New York, at least, this is a vole of the high country, and its record map could double as a guide to the state’s best talus.
Mossy rock at elevation
Rock voles want cool, damp boulder fields and mossy ledges, usually under conifer or mixed northern forest, and Whiteface’s rocky slopes and the Catskill high peaks fit that description exactly. Allegany State Park gets suggested as viewing ground in the state’s southwest, but no western county has produced a record in this dataset. Whether that’s the vole’s choice or the surveyors’ is an open question, since traplines follow the same mountains the voles do.
A July crest
New York reports peak in July, with spring and fall shoulders on either side. The vole is active year-round beneath the snow, so the summer crest mostly marks the season when mountain surveys run and hikers are out on the rock. The newest record dates to September 2023, so this is a species still being found in the state, not just remembered from old specimens.
Status in New York
NatureServe ranks the species S4, apparently secure, in New York. It’s native, and the two mountain clusters give it room: big, roadless tracts where cool rock and moss stay undisturbed. Records can’t count voles, but they show an animal holding its pockets across both ranges.
Full species profile
