Trapping muskrats the past few years had taught me a very lot about the little critters.  I used to think the little bounders were the dumbest critters this side of a ground hog, but have since learned they are not so dumb after all.

Muskrats are “creatures of habit”, like most of us.  We awaken, go about our normal morning duties, eat, drink, lazy around, work and then go back to bed.  Muskrats too, wake up, do their morning things, swim around, eat, bask in the sun, duck out of harms way, travel the same “runs” as they did yesterday and the day before and for the most part, just do what muskrats do best.

I have learned that muskrats are desired by nearly every predator that walks or fly’s in Northern Utah.  Hawks, eagles, owls, falcons, bobcats, coyotes, fox, raccoons, weasels, mink, I’m sure there are others, AND man!  How could a lowly muskrat survive at all with seemingly everything out to get him?  That question hit me a couple of years ago and I have since learned the answer, at least in part, because I’m sure there are more lessons for me to learn.

For those of you thinking you need to go on line and learn the difference between a muskrat and say a……wood chuck…..let me tell you right now, a muskrat is more closely related to a beaver.  Muskrats and beaver can and do live in close proximity to each other.  They build similar homes and both have buck teeth that are very sharp.  Read my earlier article on the difference between beaver and wood chucks.  Study about the beavers teeth and then cut all of the dimensions of the beavers teeth and cutting abilities down to 1/10th the size….there you have a muskrats teeth.  Instead of cutting down trees and eating the bark, they cut smallish willows, cat tail roots and other roots of plants that grow in wet and swampy domains.

At the other end of a muskrat is his tail and much like the tail of the beaver a muskrat uses his tail to help change his direction while swimming.  Remember a beaver has a wide flat tail, right?  A muskrat has a long slender tail that is sort of flat up and down, not flat like from top to bottom.  Is that clear?  Maybe you should go on line and look up what a muskrat looks like.  I’m getting off my story here.

God knew that when he created the muskrat that he had all of these other animals out to get it.  So he made him smaller than the beaver and able to squeeze his body into the most uninhabitable places ever known.  He also made them smart.  Perhaps smarter than the critters that are out to get him.  Here are some points of interest that I have discovered in my trapping endeavors.

Muskrats build “runs” in the muddy bottoms of lakes, streams, ponds and plain old swamps.  These runs are easy to see and if a muskrat is using the run, it generally has a muddy look to it.  Sometimes the muddy water obscures the run from your sight, but eventually the mud will settle and reveal the run.  I like to use a trap called a “box type trap” for setting runs.  These traps are typically 4 inches square when they are set and when the muskrat swims into the trap it clamps down on him, usually just behind his head  and again just above his tail.  The trap holds the muskrat firmly and usually kills it when it snaps down on it.  If not, the muskrat will just be caught there under water and drown.

Muskrats are very plentiful in the swamps and water ways where I trap and multiple muskrats will use the same run.  When a muskrat comes swimming down a run and bumps into a muskrat that has been caught in a trap, he quickly goes around it.  But, he then goes to his den and tells the others not to use that particular run.  After the muskrat meeting takes place all of the others come out to see their “brethren” who is caught and they hold a ritual in which they block up both sides of the run with mud and debris.  After I take the caught muskrat out of the trap, I have to remove the mud and debris from the run in order to get the water flowing back through that run, or I will never catch another muskrat in the run the rest of the season.  Lesson learned the hard way.

I obtained permission to trap a private duck club a couple of years ago and upon my initial investigation of the water ways, ponds and swamps I thought that the place looked good for trapping, but that there were not many rats to be found.  I figured there wasn’t enough food for them to survive and that the ponds must dry up in the summer and the muskrats that were there would leave.  After two years of trapping it I have learned this lesson….Never assume muskrats have not adapted to their environment.  What I discovered were there den openings were so flat they were almost invisible to see.  I found this by accident one day while setting traps.  I had one more trap to set and then they would be all out and waiting for muskrats to get into them.  One more is all I had to set.  I was going up the shore line of a small lake looking for that perfect spot to set it.  Nothing.  I looked and looked and then I saw this very small opening in the side of the bank.  An opening about one inch high and maybe 4 inches wide.  It was getting late and so I plopped that trap down over that opening.  What the heck!  At least the trap was set and had a remote at best chance to catch something.  A trap in the truck won’t catch nothing.

As it turned out, that trap set was one of the best I had in that area.  I caught nearly a rat a day out of that spot.  I learned rather quickly to look for those type of places to set traps on that club.  Believe me, there are a lot of rats on that club.

Another lesson learned was when I use what is called a colony trap.  A colony trap is a long narrow box made out of stiff mesh type wire with holes about one inch by 2 inches.  The box is about 24 inches long, and 4 inches square.  The open ends of the box have  hinged doors that protrudes into the box about 4 inches and are slopped on about a 45 degree angle.  When set, the box sets down inside the run and the bottom of the box sets on the bottom of the run.  The muskrat swims into the box and the door closes behind him and does not allow him to exit the other side, nor turn around and swim out the way he came in.  He is trapped and drowns.  This type of trap also allows for other muskrats to join him in the trap and thus the name colony trap….stemming from the fact that you can catch a whole colony of muskrats overnight.

Using these type of traps, once the muskrats find their buddies captured up like that in three and four at a time, they go back and call up another emergency meeting of the rest of the colony and they set out a work order to plug up the entrance to the trap on both ends and over the top and along the sides and literally bury the entire trap right there where it is set.  Then often times, they would go up to the bank where their entry hole is to the den, and fill it up with mud and debris plugging it off so that none of the rats in the den will use that run.  Without removing the plug at the entrance to the den, that colony trap with not produce another rat the entire season.

The next lesson I learned still takes its toll on me.

Winter begins to give way to early Spring when I begin my trapping season and there is a lot of thick ice still in the swamps.  What happens during the winter is the ice forms in the swamps and because of the nature of ice, it forms a cap over the top of the swamp.  Sort of like us walking into a mall.  Picture the high ceiling of the mall as a thick layer of ice over head.  The muskrats are safe from the flying predators both night and day.  They love it under that cap of ice.  They can come and go pretty much as they please.  It is very difficult for a trapper to know exactly where to chop a hole and set a trap and so most of us just leave the muskrats to doing their thing under that cap.  As the warmer weather melts that cap down, we are able to find holes in the cap and the running water and runs beneath.  We set our traps and catch a few rats.  As more ice melts, the water generally gets deeper, because the down stream ice is not yet melting and so it creates a dam and backs up the water.  We wade through the deeper water and set our traps and catch our muskrats.  All of that being said, here are a bunch of muskrats that have been living under that cap of ice all winter.  They have pretty much depleted their supply of roots and tubers and are very hungry.  They too like to see the sun and so they come out and chew up newly growing shoots of cattails and bullrush stems.  We set our traps on these mounds of chewings and catch more rats.  Well it does not take too long for the muskrat gang to catch on to our trap setting and they stay clear of those places.  Even though they don’t close down runs etc. right next to the trapping spot, they do close off the runs around the trapping area.  This directs the little critters around the trap and safely on their way.  When this happens to me I get real antsy to catch them critters.  Almost to a obsession.  They know my trap is setting right where it is and it is being held by a nice willow stake.  The willow stake has green bark still on it and they will sit right there and munch on my stake.  They will move all around that stake and eat it down to the water level, over night!  Of course the next day when I check the trap, if I don’t have another stake to replace the chewed off one, then I have to pull the trap and re-set it the next day.  They must dance for joy when they see I have removed the trap.

Other times, I have had them squat right over the trap pan and take a well deserved dump right on top of the trap!!!!   OOOOOOOOOOOOOO!  That one really takes its toll on me!

By the way when I write “OOOOOOOOOOO”, like that, picture my squinting eyes, mouth in the shape of an “O”, fists tightly clenched up near my face and my face turning bright red……OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Back to the story.  When this happens I “MUST” catch that little bounder.  And I have been known to pull all of my other traps from the area and move them to another trapping spot, but leave that one there and come back every day to see if I have caught the little bounder or not.  I have left a trap in the same spot for the rest of the season and never caught him!    OOOOOOOOOOOO!

Well, there you have a few of my lessons taught me by the little muskrat of the swamp.  The guy who is so prolific he abounds ubiquitous (seeming everywhere at the same time) in all waterways, ponds and swamps around the country.  The guy who is so dumb, even I can catch them.  So why do I trap them?

Well, for instance, last Spring, my brother Bob, his grandson, Brek and I pursued those little critters from the first part of February until the middle of March and we collected 991 of their little fur bearing bodies.  We skinned them, fleshed them and stretched them.  It did not take long for the fur buyer in the area to hear we had 1,000 rats and he came a knockin.  Paid us $7 p/each rat pelt and we were some kind of happy about that!  Got us pretty excited about next years trapping too.

Bears Butt

July 2011