West Siberian lemming

The West Siberian lemming or Western Siberian brown lemming (Lemmus sibiricus) is a true lemming species found in the Russian Federation. Like other lemmings, it belongs to the family Cricetidae of rodents.

West Siberian lemming
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Rodentia
Family:	Cricetidae
Subfamily:	Arvicolinae
Genus:	Lemmus
Species:	L. sibiricus
Binomial name
Lemmus sibiricus (Kerr, 1792)
Siberian brown lemming range (includes range of East Siberian lemming) [1]
Synonyms
Lemmus lemmus chernovi Spitsyn et al., 2021

It is endemic to Russia, where it has a wide range throughout Siberia, from the region just south of the White Sea east all the way to the Verkhoyansk Range, which serves as a barrier between it and the East Siberian lemming (L. paulus), which was formerly considered conspecific with it.^[2][3]

An insular population inhabits Novaya Zemlya; a 2021 study which performed genetic analysis on the mtDNA of the Novaya Zemlya population found them to group with the Norway lemming (L. lemmus) despite their similar appearance to mainland L. sibiricus, and classified them as the subspecies L. l. chernovi, or Novaya Zemlya lemming. However, the American Society of Mammalogists rejected these results pending further evidence, stating that these more likely represented L. sibiricus with ancient mitochondrial introgression from L. lemmus (see the article for L. lemmus for further info).^[4]

It does not hibernate during winter; it lives in burrows. It is prey to several animals, including the snowy owl and the Arctic fox. As with other species of lemmings, Siberian browns routinely experience large-scale fluctuations in their population sizes.^[5]

References

1. Tsytsulina, K.; Formozov, N. & Sheftel, B. (2017) [errata version of 2016 assessment]. "Lemmus sibiricus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T11482A115102530. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T11482A22336110.en. Retrieved 19 February 2022.
2. "Species-id=1002143". ASM Mammal Diversity Database. American Society of Mammalogists. Retrieved 2021-09-05.
3. Spitsyn, Vitaly M.; Bolotov, Ivan N.; Kondakov, Alexander V.; Klass, Anna L.; Mizin, Ivan A.; Tomilova, Alena A.; Zubrii, Natalia A.; Gofarov, Mikhail Y. (2021-03-17). "A new Norwegian Lemming subspecies from Novaya Zemlya, Arctic Russia". Ecologica Montenegrina. 40: 93–117. doi:10.37828/em.2021.40.8. ISSN 2336-9744.
4. "Lemmus lemmus (Linnaeus, 1758)". ASM Mammal Diversity Database. American Society of Mammalogists. Retrieved 2021-09-05.
5. Korpimäki, Erkki; Brown, Peter; Jacob, Jens; Pech, Roger (2004). "The Puzzles of Population Cycles and Outbreaks of Small Mammals Solved?". BioScience. 54 (12): 1071–1079. doi:10.1641/0006-3568(2004)054[1071:tpopca]2.0.co;2.

Further reading

Musser, G. G.; Carleton, M. D. (2005). "Superfamily Muroidea". In Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M. (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 894–1531. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.