Notes on the Geographical and Ecological Distribution of 
Relict Populations of Synaptomys cooperi 
(Rodentia: Arvicolidae) from Eastern North Carolina 
Mary K. Clark 
North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences 
P.O.Box 29555 
Raleigh, North Carolina 27626-0555 
AND 
Michael S. Mitchell and Kent S. Karriker 
North Carolina State University, The Wildlife Program, 
Department of Forestry 
Raleigh, North Carolina 27695-8002 
ABSTRACT — As part of a study to evaluate the effects of forest 
management on North Carolina pocosin communities, small 
mammals were trapped between May 1991 and May 1992 in 15 
stands in Carteret, Craven and Jones counties, North Carolina. 
Captures included three Synaptomys cooperi, extending the known 
range of the species in eastern North Carolina about 170 km 
south of Dismal Swamp localities. These specimens, and others 
collected since 1977, indicate that the paucity of records be- 
tween 1896 and the 1970s is the result of ineffective trap- 
ping methods and insufficient fieldwork in appropriate habitat. 
S. cooperi is more widely distributed in eastern North Carolina 
than previously reported. Populations are disjunct and appear to 
be Pleistocene relicts. 
The southern bog lemming, Synaptomys cooperi , occurs in 
eastern North America (Fig. 1) from southeastern Canada west to 
western Minnesota, and south to southwestern Kansas, northeastern 
Arkansas, southeastern Tennessee, and western North Carolina (Linzey 
1983.). A population in the Dismal Swamp in Virginia and North 
Carolina is disjunct and is recognized as a separate subspecies, S. 
c. helaletes (Wetzel 1955). For almost a century this subspecies 
was known only from 24 specimens collected between 1895 and 
1898 (Handley 1979). Between 1977 and 1980, field work in the 
Dismal Swamp (Rose 1981) and in adjacent areas in northeastern 
North Carolina yielded additional specimens of S. c. helaletes , 
some from new localities, but all in close proximity to the Dismal 
Swamp (Rose 1981, Lee et al. 1982). This subspecies is now con- 
Brimleyana 19:155-167, December 1993 
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