Muskrat

Muskrats are at home in the water. They swim with their hind feet and flattened tail, can stay under water for up to about 15 minutes, and build lodges of cattails, reeds and mud in marshes, or dig burrows into banks with entrances below the water line.

They feed mainly on aquatic plants, often on small platforms of cut vegetation, and sometimes eat mussels and crayfish. They are not rats at all but large voles, adapted for life in water.

Muskrats shape marshes. By cutting cattails and other plants for food and lodges, they open up patches of water in dense marsh, creating the mix of open water and vegetation that ducks, herons, frogs and fish need. Their lodges are used as resting and nesting sites by birds, turtles and snakes.

They are also a food for mink, otters, foxes, hawks, owls and alligators.

Breeding — spring and summer, and much of the year in the South
Gestation — about 25 to 30 days
Litter — usually four to eight young, several litters a year
Eyes open — at about two weeks old
Weaning — at about three to four weeks old
Lifespan — a few years

• Muskrats burrowing into pond dams and banks can be discouraged by lining banks with wire mesh or stone.
• Lethal traps set for muskrats can catch otters, mink and other animals.
• A young muskrat alone on land may be dispersing; it is best watched from a distance before anyone intervenes.

• Muskrats are rats. They are large, water-living voles.
• Muskrats are the same as beavers. Beavers are far larger and have broad, flat tails.
• Muskrats are the same as nutria. Nutria are an introduced South American rodent with round tails and orange teeth.

• American beaver
• Nutria
• Round-tailed muskrat