New Jersey has no southern bog lemming records from 2000 to 2026. What the state does have are older specimens, all collected before 2000, and every one comes from the southern coastal plain in Atlantic, Camden, and Burlington counties. Nothing 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.
Active under the snow
With no recent records, there’s no New Jersey calendar to read. These lemmings don’t hibernate; they stay active all winter, traveling their runways under snow, and their runway systems and clipped stems are easiest 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 older specimen. 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
