In suitable marshes, as on the eastern shore of Maryland, muskrats become extremely abundant and render such areas valuable as natural “fur farms.” One Maryland marsh containing 1,300 acres has yielded from >,000 to $7,000 worth of skins a year. Not only are the skins of value, but the flesh is palatable, and is sold readily under the trade name of “marsh rabbit” in the markets of Baltimore, Philadelphia, and elsewhere.
There is little doubt that owners of favorably situated marshes could derive from them a steady revenue by keeping them stocked with proper food plants and protecting the muskrats from their enemies. The value of these fur-bearers is becoming more and more appreciated and many States have laws restricting the trapping season to a period in fall and winter when the fur is prime.
In marshes about shallow lakes or bordering sluggish rivers muskrats build roughly conical lodges or “houses,” three to four feet high, with bases, usually in shallow water, several feet broader. These houses are made of roots and stems of plants with a mixture of mud. An oval chamber is left in the interior, well above the water level, to which entrance is gained by one or more passageways opening under water. These shelters are mainly for winter use, but the young are sometimes born in them as well as in large grass nests among dense marsh vegetation.
The curious conical lodges are familiar objects about marshes in the Eastern and Northern States, and I remember seeing, a few years ago, a specially well-formed muskrat house close to the historic bridge, at Concord, and others along the Concord River. Within ten years muskrat houses were common in marshy ponds in Potomac Park, Washington, where the Lincoln Memorial Building now stands.
Where the banks of streams or lakes rise abruptly, the muskrats make their home in dry chambers in the banks above water level at the end of a tunnel opening either under water or close to the water level. Worn trails lead up the banks about such places and well-marked runways are made through the heavy reeds and marsh grasses in their haunts.
Muskrats are mainly nocturnal animals, but often move about during the day. I have seen them repeatedly swimming close to the bank of the Potomac a short distance above Washington. They like to carry their food to slightly elevated points where they can overlook the water along shore, such as the top of a projecting log, large stone, or earthen bank, from which they plunge headlong at the first alarm. Many a solitary canoeman gliding silently along the shore of stream or pond at night has been startled by the disproportionately loud splash made by a muskrat diving from its resting place.
Their food consists mainly of the roots and stems of succulent plants varied with fresh-water clams, an occasional fish, and even by cultivated vegetables grown in places readily accessible from their haunts. They store up roots and other vegetable matter for winter use and remain active throughout that season. The roots of which their “houses” are built are frequently those used for food and sometimes serve as winter supplies.
PORCUPINE
Erethizon dorsatum