Bavarian pine vole
The Bavarian pine vole is a vole from the Austrian, Italian, and Bavarian Alps of Europe. It lives in moist meadows at elevations of 600 to 1,000 meters. There are 23 museum specimens of this species.
This rodent was previously known to live in only one location, Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria, which was altered by the construction of a hospital in the 1980s. No specimens of this rodent were recorded after 1962 and it was thought to be extinct. However, a population apparently belonging to this species was discovered in 2000 in Northern Tyrol, just across the German-Austrian border. An Austrian scientist, Friederike Spitzenberger, stumbled upon the species in a live trap. Its species status was confirmed by genetic studies, and it was found to be very closely related to Liechtenstein's vole from the Eastern Alps. Further research is required to determine the size and range of the population and the species has been re-assessed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN.
