Every one of New Jersey’s 13 confirmed records comes from the southern coastal plain: Atlantic County with 7, Camden with 5, and Burlington with 1. Nothing yet comes from the state’s northwestern hills, even though that higher, wetter ground looks like classic lemming habitat. Whether the species is truly missing there or simply untrapped is an open question.
A winter-leaning calendar
The dated reports all fall between November and March, with December busiest at 4 records and February and March close behind at 3 apiece. Nothing appears from April through October. That isn’t a hibernation flip; these lemmings stay active all winter, traveling their runways under snow. It more likely mirrors when small-mammal trappers work, and how much easier runway systems and clipped stems are to spot once frost kills back the grass.
Where surveys could change the picture
The habitat picks span both halves of the state: the cedar swamps and wet woods of Wawayanda State Park and Jenny Jump State Forest in the north, and Wharton State Forest’s Pine Barrens wetlands in the south, the same region that produced every confirmed record so far. NatureServe lists the species as unrankable (SU) in New Jersey, meaning too little information exists to grade its standing. A few well-placed trap lines in either region could move it off that unresolved rank.
Full species profile
