Alaska’s reports for the taiga vole concentrate in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the North Slope, and Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, boreal and tundra country stretching from the Brooks Range foothills toward the Arctic coast. This is North America’s largest vole, and it favors black spruce taiga still recovering from wildfire, where open, sun-warmed ground supports the burrowing this species depends on.
Unlike most voles, which live and defend territory alone, taiga voles dig connected burrow systems and den together underground through winter, huddling in shared tunnels below the snow. Grasses make up most of the diet, but the vole also chews through lichens, horsetails, and berries, tougher plant matter that may help explain why it grows so much larger than the tundra voles and lemmings sharing its range.
Alaska’s records for this species pile up almost entirely in a single August window, with next to nothing recorded the rest of the year. Some of that reflects real biology: a species that spends so much time in burrows and under snow is genuinely hard to spot. But it’s also a function of how short the Interior Alaska field season runs, so a gap in reports outside that window doesn’t mean the vole isn’t there.
Full species profile
