Mammals of the Grand Mesa, ColoradoAnderson, Sydney
Science
Mammals of the Grand Mesa, Colorado
Anderson, Sydney
Mammals -- Colorado
=_Clethrionomys gapperi galei_= (Merriam).--The 22 specimens
(60005-60025, 70133) of Gapper's Red-backed Vole were taken at
localities 6, 7, and 10, and are clearly referable to _C. g. galei_,
rather than to _Clethrionomys gapperi gauti_ to the south, on the basis
of generally dark dorsal pelage, indistinctly bordered broad dorsal
stripe, and cranial features. _C. g. gauti_ was described by Cockrum
and Fitch (1952, Univ. Kansas Publ., Mus. Nat. Hist., 5:289) on the
basis of 14 specimens from southern Colorado and northern New Mexico.
Twenty-one additional specimens from five miles south and one mile
west of Cucharas Camps, Huerfano County, were obtained from the seventh
to the fourteenth of July by the field party led by Tordoff after the
party left the Grand Mesa. These specimens substantiate the subspecific
distinctness of _C. g. gauti_ in that they agree in external and in
cranial appearance with the description of typical _C. g. gauti_, and
are distinct in appearance from specimens of _C. g. galei_ from the
Grand Mesa and from other localities in northern Colorado. The six
specimens from two localities in Colorado available to Cockrum and
Fitch exhibited evidence of intergradation at one locality, and
atypical smallness at the other locality. A specimen (70134) taken on
June 26, 1956, by Phillip M. Youngman on the Black Mesa, nine miles WNW
of Sapinero, 9500 ft., Gunnison County, Colorado, is almost identical
in color to the two specimens from Saguache County regarded by Cockrum
and Fitch as intergrades between _C. g. galei_ and _C. g. gauti_, but
in small size of auditory bullae and narrowness of braincase resembles
_C. g. galei_, to which it seems best referred. The specimens from the
Grand Mesa extend the known range of _C. g. galei_ approximately 50
miles westward in central Colorado from Gothic. Three females were
pregnant; two trapped on June 17 and June 25 contained 6 embryos each,
and one trapped on June 25 contained 5 embryos. Four of the females
taken in Huerfano County were pregnant; one contained 3 embryos, two
contained 5 embryos, and one contained 7 embryos. Immature individuals
are present in the sample from Huerfano County also.
=_Phenacomys intermedius intermedius_= Merriam.--Three Heather Voles
(60048, 60049, 70135) were trapped at localities 6, 7, and 10. All were
adult females; one, taken on June 25 at locality 6, contained seven
embryos five millimeters in length, and one, taken on July 2 at
locality 7, contained seven embryos nine millimeters in length. These
specimens extend the known range of the species approximately 55 miles
west from Gothic (Pruitt, Jour. Mamm., 35:450, 1954).
=_Microtus longicaudus mordax_= (Merriam).--Ten Long-tailed Voles
(60070-60079) represent localities 3, 6, 12, 13, 14, and 15.
=_Microtus montanus fusus_= Hall.--Ten Montane Voles (60060-60068,
70145) represent localities 3, 6, 7, and 15.
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