Mammals of Carolina Bays 23 



Microtus pennsylvanicus nigrans (Rhoads), Meadow Vole. The Mea- 

 dow Vole was abundant in wet, early successional communities on the 

 Albemarle-Pamlico peninsula. We found it wherever Juncus was domi- 

 nant, and in Spartina marshes and road shoulders bordering pocosins. 

 Dark individuals, which appeared to be Microtus p. nigrans, were col- 

 lected as far west as Gates County, along the western edge of the Dismal 

 Swamp, and on the Dare County mainland. Except for a few barrier 

 island and salt marsh populations of Microtus p. pennsylvanicus, the 

 Meadow Vole does not occur on the Coastal Plain south of Pamlico 

 River. Consequently, it was not caught in any of our study sites in south- 

 eastern North Carolina. 



Microtus pinetorum pinetorum (LeConte), Pine Vole. We found M. 

 pinetorum to be rare, but collected it in the ecotonal area between 

 Carolina bays and their adjacent sand rims in Hoke (NCSM 3830) and 

 Bladen (NCSM 4182) counties, and in dry areas adjacent to stream- 

 head forest. Most of the study sites we visited were too damp to support 

 this vole, but it is common in some drained agricultural areas that 

 apparently had once been Carolina bays. 



Ondatra zibethicus macrodon (Merriam), Muskrat. Although found 

 throughout most of the Coastal Plain in marshes, ponds, and shallow 

 areas of lakes and impoundments, Muskrats are not generally associated 

 with pocosins or Carolina bays. Only in the drainage canals within 

 pocosin areas in Dare and Pasquotank counties were they common. We 

 have reports of muskrats in Sugg's Mill Pond, Bladen County, but in 

 this particular Carolina bay the water levels are artificially maintained 

 by earthen dikes and dams. 



Synaptomys cooperi helaletes (Merriam), Southern Bog Lemming. 

 This disjunct Dismal Swamp race of the Bog Lemming had not been 

 found between 1896 and 1979 and there was some concern that it was 

 extinct. Subsequently it was collected by Rose (1981b) in both the Vir- 

 ginia and North Carolina portions of the Swamp. In addition, we have 

 a single specimen (NCSM 4019; Lee et al. 1982) from near Elizabeth 

 City, and David Webster, UNC-Wilmington, informed us that he has 

 collected this lemming in a young upland pine plantation near Mer- 

 chant's Mill Pond, Gates County, North Carolina. Thus, the race is 

 considerably more widely distributed than previously known. Rose 

 (1981a) documented its ability to invade clearings with heavy herba- 

 ceous ground cover. Intensive trapping on the Albemarle-Pamlico penin- 

 sula by NCSM personnel, in what we regarded as optimum habitat for 

 the species, indicated that this rodent does not occur south of Albemarle 

 Sound. In fact, it appears to occupy a pocket in northeastern North 

 Carolina and southeastern Virginia in which Sigmodon is absent. Based 



