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7:58 p.m. - 2005-02-19
the mighty mighty muskrat
Hola, Patriots! Happy snowy Saturday. After watching wonderful performances all day at the Metropolitan Opera Regional auditions, I feel the best way to conclude the evening is to complete a Critter Corner entry about the noble muskrat.

That was a bad segue.

Actually I thought about muskrats this week while hanging out with my friend, KB. (My beautiful buddy who set me up with my boyfriend!) Along with caramel sundaes and her cat, who I'll call "Pepe", together we enjoyed day two of the Westminster Dog Show. "Pepe" enjoyed watching the dogs, too, and tried to lick my ice cream bowl.

But to connect KB and I to the rodent-of-the-day, we must go back in time to this autumn, when she and I were taking a nature walk. After getting coffee, (and avoiding some drunk randoms leaving Champps) we walked through the marsh near her house. By-stepping the copious goose-poop (and haven't we talked about poop ENOUGH on this site already!), we were approaching her road when I noticed some movement in the water.

It was a small muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus)! We observed it a while before we had to continue onwards.

muskrat-001.jpg

But I think it's wonderful to encounter a muskrat near your house and think of it fondly all winter long!

Muskrats will travel hundreds of yards to find plants to drag back to the water. There they will eat the best parts, leaving a pile of waste that becomes what is called a "feeding platform". (Humans call this a "coffee table".)

I just learned that muskrats do eat frogs and small fish, along with vegetable matter. I also didn't know that muskrats live in brackish and salt water marshes. They dislike rocky areas and fast moving water.

Muskrats have orange, protruding teeth that stick out while their mouth is closed. Therefore, they can eat while underwater! Of course, they're wonderful swimmers, and can even swim backwards.

To help them in their swimming, muskrats have large webbed rear feet and a hairless, slightly rounded, black tail. These tail characteristics, along with their smaller size, are the best way to distinguish between a muskrat and a beaver.

Muskrats are horny. They have up to five litters per year, with five to eleven babies. Females will breed even while still nursing tinys.

Usually muskrats build homes that are much smaller than beaver dams. Often they will hole up inside their "feeding platform", or utilize underwater burrows into the riverbank. They mostly live alone, but can live in groups until it's time to mate. Muskrat holes are very clean; they defecate outside the burrow on logs or rocks.

In the "ew, gross" section, muskrat meat is sold as "marsh rabbit". (Has anyone heard of this? Is it a regional thing?!)

The largest rodent in their subfamily, muskrats are preyed upon by the raccoon and the mink, and trappers. Thankfully, muskrats are thriving even as wetlands decrease because of human development.

muskrat2.jpg

The photo above was taken in the Horicon Marsh in Wisconsin, close to where my sister A and her hubby T-Dogg live!

So, keep your eye out for the cute and furry muskrat! Often you can see them swimming; a head will pop up and they will dive and reappear yards away. And, if you're walking home drunk from Champp's in Richfield, please think of the muskrats and don't hurl in the lake!

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