Northern Bog Lemming

Tags:

Northern Bog Lemming

Northern Bog Lemming

Royal Saskatchewan Museum
Image Source

The northern bog lemming is a small rodent related to gerbils and hamsters, two common house pets.  It has brown and grey  fur and a short stubby tail.   It grows to an average length of 4 inches and an average weight of just over an ounce.  It is an herbivore adapted to eating coarse vegetation, grasses, sedges, mushrooms, berries and occasionally insects.

The northern bog lemming’s preferred habitat is reflected in its name.  It is often found in wetlands, wet northern forests, and tundra.

For being such a small creature, the Northern Bog Lemming plays a large role in the northern ecosystem. Its 3 to 4 year population cycle is linked directly to the population cycles of many of the larger carnivores in the area. When the Lemming population spikes lemmings are literally everywhere and denude much of the native vegetation.  This causes the other herbivores, such as Caribou and Arctic Hare to eat lemmings because the vegetation is scarce and lemmings are so abundant and easily caught.   Carnivores such as Raptors, Owls, Foxes and weasels, and others sense when the lemming population spike will occur and will produce 2 to  4 times as many young on those years because an abundance of lemmings equals an abundance of food with which to feed themselves and their young.

Additional Images:

Northern Bog Lemming Map

The Royal Saskatchewan Museum
Image Source

References

www.royalsaskmuseum.ca

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/northern_bog_lemming

Forsyth, Adrian.  Mammals of North America; Temperate and Arctic Regions.  Firefly Books, Ltd. 1999.

 

 

 

 

 

 





 

 

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.