Maine’s occurrence data holds just 31 records for the southern bog lemming, one of the state’s least-recorded small mammals. That scarcity says more about how well this animal hides than about how many actually live in Maine’s wet ground.
Not just a bog animal, wherever wet cover grows thick
Despite the name, this lemming isn’t tied to open bog. It lives in any patch of wet meadow, sedge bed, or grassy opening with cover dense enough to hide a runway. In Maine, that habitat shows up both along the Down East coast, where Rachel Carson and Petit Manan National Wildlife Refuges protect salt marsh edges and wet grassland, and inland, where sedge meadows line the state’s rivers and lake margins.
Runways under grass, a diet of green plants
The lemming cuts narrow paths through matted vegetation and builds round nests of grass and sedge, often under a log or root tangle. Sedges, grasses, mosses, roots, bark, and fungi make up most of its diet, with insects adding some protein. Owls, hawks, snakes, foxes, and weasels all hunt it, so staying under thick cover is its main defense.
Status in Maine
NatureServe ranks the southern bog lemming S4, apparently secure, and it’s native to Maine. Its scattered Maine records trace the state’s wet meadows and marsh edges, from the coastal refuges Down East to damp lowlands further inland.
Full species profile
