Many may not know the northern bog lemming lives in Southeast Alaska \u2014but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering the rarely seen mammal\u2019s status as endangered across the United States and is asking for relevant information from the public by Nov. 17.<\/p>\n
Local naturalist Bob Armstrong, who spends almost every day out observing Southeast\u2019s wildlife, said to his knowledge, he\u2019s never seen a northern bog lemming.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only lemming I\u2019ve seen and photographed is the collared lemming, and that was when I was living in Fairbanks,\u201d he said. \u201cI was surprised about how many records occur in Southeast.\u201d<\/p>\n
Research scientist Dean Pearson, who took what he believes to be the only photo of the animal as an undergraduate two decades ago, said the animals are \u201ca little bit mysterious.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t know a lot about them,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re just really sporadic; they\u2019re not abundant anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
The northern bog lemming\u2019s journey within the USFWS is just beginning, Candidate & Classification Coordinator Krishna Gifford, who works for the Northeast Region of the USFWS, wrote in an email. Ninety-day findings are based entirely on the information in the petition that asked for listing, Gifford wrote. In the case of the Northern Bog Lemming, Wild Earth Guardians filed the petition in 2014.<\/p>\n
In a release, Taylor Jones, the endangered species advocate who co-wrote the petition, said the group is \u201cdelighted that the regal fritillary (a kind of butterfly) and bog lemming are one step closer to Endangered Species Act protections,\u201d adding \u201cThe rarity of both these species is an important red flag for the health of their ecosystems, and we hope the Service will move quickly to protect them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, the USFWS is \u201cactively seek(ing) out information from all public and private sources,\u201d Gifford wrote in an email. \u201cWe can accept substantive information right up until we make a final decision, so while it is ideal for us to get new information during the open public information solicitation period, we can accept information after the Nov. 17 date in the Federal Register.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the course of the next year or so, the USFWS will do a more in-depth study on the species.<\/p>\n
According to a report from scholars within the Alaska Natural Heritage Program out of the University of Alaska, Anchorage, no one knows the species\u2019 population size in the state, but the animal is uncommon. Northern bog lemmings range between south of the Brooks Range throughout interior Alaska, and on mainland Southeast, making their homes in burrows up to a foot deep in cold bogs or places with springs; they live mostly in the boreal forests, but also, sometimes, near rocky cliffs. <\/p>\n
In the continguous U.S., the species is considered a glacial relict species, Pearson said, meaning scientists believe it survived from when glaciers last receded in the late Pleistocene, 10,000 to 11,000 years ago. <\/p>\n
\u201cGiven its abundance and broken distribution in Alaska, it is likely a relict there as well, but this is hypothetical,\u201d he wrote in an email.<\/p>\n
Gifford doesn\u2019t yet have an exact date for when the agency will decide whether or not the bog lemming warrants listing. Another possibility, as with all potential ESA listings, may be that the species warrants listing as endangered but isn\u2019t added to the list because there are \u201chigher priority listing actions,\u201d in which case the agency reassesses that decision annually.<\/p>\n
If they decided it merited listing as threatened or endangered, they would get peer and public review and comment on the proposed rule, she wrote. They may also designate critical habitat.<\/p>\n
Armstrong and retired ecologist Mary Willson wrote about lemmings in \u201cNatural Connections in Alaska,\u201d a 2014 book. <\/p>\n
Alaska\u2019s home to three lemming species, they wrote \u2013 brown, bog, which they describe as \u201clittle-studied,\u201d and collared. Populations tend to increase quickly every three or four years, then crash. (Also, the popular idea that lemmings dive off cliffs en masse isn\u2019t true. Lemmings don\u2019t commit mass suicide.) Around Alaska, they\u2019re important food for pomarine jaegers, snowy owls and arctic foxes.<\/p>\n
Read the petition here: http:\/\/www.wildearthguardians.org\/site\/DocServer\/WildEarthGuardiansPetitionNorthernBogLemming.pdf?docID=14742 <\/p>\n
Read more on USFWS\u2019s website here: http:\/\/www.fws.gov\/midwest\/es\/soc\/Batch90DaySept2015.html. <\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact Juneau Empire outdoors writer Mary Catharine Martin at maryc.martin@capweek.com. <\/p>\n
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