Trapping muskrats may seem like a dirty thing to do to such pretty little critters.  After all, what have they done to deserve being caught and killed?  The answer to that question is relative to where they are living.  If they are located clear out in the middle of no-where, with no body trying to improve their properties with dams, and dikes to retain water, then those little critters can live and die according to their life style.  But when they are living near places where people are trying to improve their properties then they have to have something done to get rid of them or at least control the numbers a bit.

Muskrats have very long sharp claws on all four feet and those claws are there for them to dig with.  They are almost constantly digging in the sides of the banks of lakes and streams.  They eat the roots that they expose as they dig and they live for that activity.  A small dug out place on the bank does not hurt much, but as they continue to make that small dug out deeper into the bank it then becomes a tunnel.  Sometimes they will make a large cavern at the end of the tunnel and they make it their den.  They will haul in nice warm grass and make nests in which to curl up and stay warm and dry in the winter.

Ranchers who raise cattle need water for those animals, muskrats like water and put those two different types of animals in the same vicinity and this is what you are going to begin to see rather quickly:

What you are looking at are the tunnels caved in where the cattle have stepped as they walked along the top of a dam.  The dam serves to back up the water for the animals to drink and also a road for the rancher to drive on to do his work.  When these tunnels cross completely across the width of the road or dam, the water that is backed up in the pond soon begins to leak through the tunnel, and you know what water will do then…erode and wash away the dirt on the bottom of the tunnel and continue to do so until the water level falls below the bottom of the tunnel.

This picture is of a wash out where the rats tunnel went around the end of the dams overflow outlet.

When rats get really ambitious they can dig down quite deep in the dam.  They will start high, say above the water level and tunnel straight in for a ways, then they will dig downward as they continue to cross the width of the dam.  These are the worst tunnels they could possibly dig for the land owner.  First off, the tunnel is so deep, animals will not crush in the top of the tunnel when they walk across the top, therefore there is no visible indication of any problem.  The rat tunnel may even come out the other side of the dam, way down at the bottom of the dam.  When trapping I really like to find those spots.

Well, suddenly the dam gets an influx of extra water from up stream, like that from a flash flood or just quickly melting snow and ice and the water enters the opening of the tunnel and begin its travel…its travel is always in the path of least resistance and tunnels offer just that…the erosion begins and suddenly the dam washes out with great force and cuts and erodes everything down stream in its path.

How would you like to be this land owner…his pond is now almost empty, his irrigation system can not get the water needed to irrigate other portions of the ranch, his road has deep gouges in it from the rushing and flowing water and he is faced with an expense he probably can’t afford….all because of a cute little cuddly furry critter called a muskrat.  I’m sorry folks, to me the only good muskrat is the one hanging in my fur shed!

Bears Butt

March 22, 2013