Mammals of the Field Station and Bog

Mammals of the Field Station and Bog

Jim Reinartz, FOCB President

The UWM Field Station website has species lists of plants, amphibians and reptiles, mammals, and birds for the Bog area available on their website (https://uwm.edu/field-station/research/data/#h-species-lists).  These lists have been developed and maintained over 56 years of research at the Station and are a great resource.

Since we have an article about Bobcats in this issue of the BogHaunter, I thought it might be of interest to include the list of all the mammals that have been recorded at the Station.

The list includes all the common mammals we would expect to find in this area.  Three species of note include Beaver and River Otter which were not noted in the Bog four decades ago, but which have more recently moved back into the wetland.  One really unusual mammal for southeastern Wisconsin is the Red-backed Vole.  This beautiful little mouse is the common mouse in northern Wisconsin, but this far south is only found in conifer swamps that resemble their northern habitat.  The large Red-backed Vole population in the Bog is one of the southernmost occurrences in Wisconsin, and is the mammal that complements the many species of plants and breeding birds that are at or near the southern boundary of their ranges in our wonderful conifer swamp.