Wildlife Watching Wednesday: Winter Muskrats
By: Tom Berg
Muskrats are relatively small, nocturnal mammals that prefer to live in marshes and wetlands. They are usually 16 to 26 inches long, but almost half of their length is from their long tail. Although muskrats favor wetlands and swamps, they are also common in lakes, ponds, rivers and creeks throughout most of the United States and Canada.
Muskrats have dark brown fur which is very soft and warm. Their fur must be warm since they live in the water and are active all winter (they do not hibernate). Some muskrats spend the winter inside lodges they build out of cattails and marsh grasses, while others live in underground dens in the banks of creeks or lakes. The entrance to their dens and lodges is underwater, so once thick ice forms they can swim out under the ice to find food.
The diet of a muskrat is mostly vegetarian. They eat cattails, bulrushes, water lilies and all sorts of marsh grasses and roots. Roots and tubers are among their favorite foods. They sometimes eat meat like fish, frogs, crayfish and mussels when vegetation becomes scarce in the winter. By the end of winter, it is common for muskrats to have eaten much of the inside of their lodges that were built with cattails.
Some people confuse muskrats with beavers since they inhabit the same areas and have a similar appearance, but muskrats are much smaller than beavers. A typical muskrat weighs 2-4 pounds, while a beaver can easily weigh 20-70 pounds. Muskrats also have a long, thin tail while beavers have a wide, flattened tail. Also, beaver lodges are always made of sticks and branches (not vegetation) and are much larger than muskrat lodges.
As mentioned, muskrats spend the winter inside their lodge or underground den. These dens are not only much warmer than the outside air, they also provide important protection from predators like hawks, owls, mink, coyotes and raccoons. Once the water and ground freezes, the muskrats are safe inside their fortresses and they are very difficult to dig out.
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