Habitat
The Northern Hog sucker inhabits many different and diverse environments. Across the United States they can be found from the Mississippi River to the great lakes, even leaking into the Hudson bay in Canada. From Wisconsin to New York, and even down south to states like Georgia, it is possible to find the Northern Hog sucker thriving in its environment.
Often clear streams of water, meaning they lack silt or other items that may decrease visibility in the water. It also has been observed that they prefer fast moving streams during the warmer seasons, while inhabiting calmer waters once winter arrives.
Throughout their lives the Northern Hog sucker will make many different migrations throughout the many streams that dot the central American Landscape. The migrations are often repeated and can span up to 100 -200 km.
Below is a distribution map of the Northern Hog Sucker that is from the United States Geological Survey (Click the map to go to their site). This map shows the current range of the Northern Hog sucker and the diverse habitats that it can be found in. As we can see from the map, it is a very adaptive fish allowing it to inhabit cold regions like Wisconsin and much warmer regions like southern Alabama.
In the United States the Northern Hog sucker is considered to be a "secure" species, one that has no real threat of disappearing, while the populations that have migrated into Canada have been given the status rating of "vulnerable" meaning that there is a risk that they could be all killed off in this region.