New York’s 102 records give the southern bog lemming a clearer footprint here than it has in most states. Two neighboring counties in the hills south of the Mohawk Valley anchor the map: Schoharie with 29 records and Otsego with 17, and Gilbert Lake State Park alone accounts for 14. From there the reports thin out across 17 counties, from the Adirondacks to the Allegheny Plateau.
Recorded in every season, busiest in late summer
Reports appear in every month but crest in August with 27 records and stay high through September at 18. Late summer is when small rodents are most numerous after the breeding season and when field crews are most active, so the crest probably owes as much to effort as to the lemmings. One caution for anyone reading the trend: the most recent confirmed record dates to December 2020, so the state’s map has gone quiet in recent years.
From the Adirondacks to the Allegheny
Beyond the Schoharie and Otsego anchor, records reach Hamilton and Essex counties in the Adirondacks and Cattaraugus County in the far southwest, with named spots like Little Moose Wilderness and Allegany State Park contributing. The sedge meadows of Montezuma and Iroquois national wildlife refuges and the wet pockets inside Adirondack Park all hold the damp, dense cover this species needs. NatureServe ranks it S4 in New York, apparently secure, though the post-2020 silence in the record is worth a closer look.
Full species profile
