How Do Muskrats Work?

Muskrats are clever semi-aquatic rodents with a distinct musky scent. Learn more about them (and, yes, 'Muskrat Love') in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://animals.howstuffworks.com/mammals/muskrat.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey
brain Stuff Lauren Vogel bomb here. Most people don't know
much about muskrats, perhaps other than remembering that classic nine
seventies song about their ability to experience romantic love. While
we can't speak to that, here's what we do know

(00:22):
about muskrats. Muskrats are semi aquatic rodents. They're stout little
critters with thick fur that can range in color from
red to brown to black. It's also lighter on their
throat and stomach. A short, stiff coat of under fur
provides them with much needed insulation and buoyancy in the water.
They can weigh anywhere from one to six pounds that's

(00:45):
about half a kilo to three kilos, and can be
a foot or too long, about thirty to sixty centimes.
Their long tails are vertically flattened and sparsely haired. It
acts as a rudder when a muskrat swims. There are
sometimes staken for their rodent cousins, beavers, which are also
semi aquatic. However, beavers are larger than muskrats, about the

(01:07):
size of a small golden retriever, and their tails are
horizontally flat like a paddle. For the article this episode
is based on, has to Fork spoke with Margaret Gillespie,
a naturalist with Squam Lakes Natural Science Center in New Hampshire.
She said beavers and muskrats are both gnawing rodents, but
beavers build dams that result in ponds where muskrats can live.

(01:32):
Swimming is muskrats forte and they are fast. They can
paddle up to three miles an hour that's five kilometers
an hour. Their large hind feet are partially webbed and
act as oars. They're also able to stay underwater without
taking a breath for up to twenty minutes. You can
find them in any type of fresh water, including ponds
and lakes, but they prefer marshes with lots of vegetation

(01:54):
and a steady depth of at least four to six
feet that's one to two meters of water. They're swimming
skills make up for their poor vision, hearing, and sense
of smell. Muskrats are native to most of North America
south of the tundra. Marshes provide muskrats a full menu
of food, which is good because they eat about a
third of their body weight every day. They typically eat roots, stocks,

(02:18):
and cattails, with a few frogs and insects thrown in.
In the winter, they swim below the surface ice to
get to roots, because unlike beavers, they prefer food fresh
and don't store it away for the cold months. Flaps
in their mouths behind their teeth keep water from getting
in while they're eating. Muskrats use mud and vegetation to

(02:41):
build dome shaped lodges on tree stumps or anything that's
partially submerged in water. Their lodges can be up to
three feet that's one meter tall and contain dry chambers
that the animals live in. They help them keep cool
during the summer and warm during cold winters. Each lodge
will have it least one underwater entrance to a tunnel

(03:02):
extending out to dry land. Muskrats like to stay in
large family groups within their own territories. The female muskrats
are prolific childbearers and have one to three litters of
five or six kits every year. They nest in chambers
inside their lodges and have a gestation period of just
about a month. Kids are born blind, but they're quick learners.

(03:25):
They can swim at about twenty one days after birth.
Muskrat moms will kick their offspring out of the lodge
when they hit that one month birthday or if it
just gets too crowded. They can live as long as
ten years in captivity or about three or four years
in the wild. Muskrats are active at any time of day,
but are most active from mid afternoon through dusk. Muskrat

(03:47):
life isn't just one big swimming party among the cattails,
though there are many. Predators include raccoons, owls, hawks, fox
mink otters, and bald eagles, as well as humans who
trapped them for food, would and for fur. They're slow
on the land, which is why they stick to the
water so much. They're swimming skills often allow them to
escape predators, diving under water or hiding in their lodges.

(04:12):
Muskrats vocalize with a range of squeaks, chirps, and sort
of whiney sounds, which often serve as warning of nearby intruders.
But that's not their only form of communication, and this
brings us to how they got their name. Muskrats also
communicate by gland secretion. Gillespie said, rather than being malodorous

(04:33):
like skunk spray, it has a sweet smell. Its main
purpose is for scent marking to convey the animal's presence
in the area. Muskrats can be considered pests on farms.
Wild muskrats will eat stores of grain and sometimes plug
the drainage tiles and fields. And since muskrats also have
a habit of building their homes near dikes or dams,

(04:55):
the lodges can weaken the structures and eventually destroy them.
So when a bald eagle snatches up at muskrat for
dinner or a fur trader traps one, that actually helps
keep the population in balance and more dikes and dam's intact.
But back to that song, Muskrat Love. Although it was
first recorded in the early nineteen seventies by songwriter Willis

(05:18):
Allan Ramsay and covered soon after by the band America,
it didn't become a hit until pop duo Captain and
Tanil covered it in nineteen seventy six. It peaked at
number four on the Hot one chart that year when
they sang the song at a July nineteen seventy six
White House dinner honoring Queen Elizabeth the Second. A guest
who attended the dinner was later quoted as saying that

(05:40):
it was in very poor taste to sing about mating
muskrats before the Queen. Today's episode is based on the
article muskrats are fat little rodents with a signature smell
on house to forks dot com, written by Meg Sparwin.
Rain Stuff is production of by Heart Radio in partnership
with house to works dot com, and it's produced by

(06:01):
Tyler Klang. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit
the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.