Arvicola persicus Filippi, 1865

13. Persian Water Vole, Arvicola persicus Filippi, 1865 View in CoL

(IUCN Red List: LC)

Subspecies: A. p. hintoni ( Aharoni, 1932).

Distribution: Status uncertain but the species is probably rare; confined to the coastal region and Sahl Al-Ghab ( Fig. 18 View FIGURE 18 ).

Previous records: According to Bodenheimer (1958) and Aharoni (1930) recorded as common near Banias (Baniyas) (see Harrison & Bates 1991). The only new records were from Jub Al-Ghar village, 4 km northeast of Slenfeh ( Shehab et al. 2006a).

Remarks: Recently, Mahmoudi et al. (2020) showed that water voles from the Hyrcanian refugium in Iran are specifically distinct from A. amphibius and classified them as A. persicus . The geographic scope of A. persicus is not yet defined, but Maul et al. (2020) classified water voles from Hatay and Palestine as A. persicus . The molecular make-up of Syrian water voles is still not known, although this would be an essential piece of information in establishing their actual taxonomic position. Earlier authors reported water voles from Syria as A. terrestris or A. amphibius and were frequently classified as subspecies hintoni ( Aharoni, 1932).