While out with my camera today I thought I would document some muskrat activity in a cattail marsh for my Trapping Library, and to share with those on the forum who may not be familiar with these structures.

Winter muskrat houses, lodges or huts are built in the fall, and so are their feed beds or "push ups".They are often misread by new or beginning trappers as being one in the same. But they are completely different from each other.

In this type of habitat, the living quarters are much larger than the feed beds and are made primarily from cattail plant stock.

The huts in these examples are about 4-6 feet high and up to 8 feet in diameter. I have seen them much larger than these over the years in some Wisconsin marshes.







By contrast, the feed beds are significantly smaller and made up of finer vegetation - either from submergent aquatic vegetation, or from grasses and root stock sources on land adjacent to the water.

From a distance in this case, you can tell that they are different, mainly by their size, color, shape and the materials they are comprised of. Those pictured in the open water area are about 3 feet in diameter and 2-3 feet high.







This is a smaller one adjacent to the shoreline and was actively under construction. It appeared to be almost finished. It was about 2 feet in diameter and about 18" high.



If you look close enough, you can see the finer green vegetation and fresh chewings from tubers and stems.





Thought this might be a little helpful showing muskrat sign in a cattail marsh and how to tell the difference between both activities prior to ice up to get them through the winter in this northern habitat type.

Jonathan

Great post!

Great post as usual. Thanks for sharing Jonathan

cool!

Here in missouri in my parts we dont have a lot of cattails But we have small sloughs. Here is a hut made from the surrounding material. It has one entrance.



In the next picture you can see a feed bed in the distance its made from the smaller material and has no entrances. Its surrounded by clear water and they have the bottom cleaned all around it from all the activity. They grab moss and all types of small material and pile it high.



In the next pic you can see the hut next to the bank and the feed bed in the distance



So even in our latitude the same principals apply. Thanks for all the info and great pics Jonathan

Tony, I saw your post on this topic a few days ago, but thought your post's title (headline) would be lost. I was going to add to it, but thought the gist of intent would be missed by most.

So.......I decided to introduce my northern view of their makeup. I couldn't relate to what your more southern structures were comprised of - they looked like feed beds to me up here without size descriptions, etc.

I've been after these beauties since I was an 8 year old in 1950, a little longer than most, with possibly the exception of T-man member "Actor" (aka Garry).

Jonathan

Thanks for the posts guys, We just started targeting muskrats in the marsh this year. Up until now it's been all creek rats. The pics and descriptions are a big help.

You sure do take some nice pictures.

Jonathan,

This old bird really enjoyed this post. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this.

Pelts

We dont get many around here that build the huts most of the time they are bank dens. But this area is pretty flat and they lack a good spot for a bank den.

They use sticks and some type of water weed to do the huts. But the push ups are all small vegitation.

LOL, they look just like a giant beaver castor mound! Jonathan I really appreciate your threads!

Great post and photos....makes me want to set some traps there!

Thank you for your kind words.

The small feed bed still under construction got my juices motivated. This afternoon I am going to set up a trail camera near it in an attempt to capture a few videos of the activity there.

Will also look for additional sign related to this habitat - closer views of the chewings and digging on land.

Jonathan

Nice write up and very nice photography

Thanks for the post....I have learned that I am one the begginers making that mistake. Thankyou for setting it straight!

Here is a catch from today in the runs running from feed beds to the hut. The first 2 pics show the run with trap in the run. Mother nature supplies the stabilizers.





Here in the next 2 pics shows the results of setting those types of runs. A colony trap would work really well here as well.

Is it possible to have a pond with 2 pushups and no huts?

I know around here it is as they will use the dam as a denning area and the feed beds wont be far away. Situations such as that are good areas to catch them as they are in a confined area.

Chasing them in a few acres of marsh and sloughs gets a bit rough some times. Jonathan will be able to give you more details than i can!

Love it Jonathan, as usual.

I was away for a while, did you ever finish the "tote and pack" project you were working on a while back?

Skunk, That is not uncommon in man-made ponds constructed with an impoundment type of dam, dike or berm. In many situations of this nature (lacking huts) the muskrats are living in bank dens, making only feed beds from the submergent and emergent aquatic vegetation in the pond.

In Ohio, if there were going to be huts on a pond in preparation for winter living quarters, they would have been built by now. Without huts and only feed beds/push ups, it is safe to assume the muskrats are using bank dens either in the pond proper, or in the ditch or small stream that may be an unobstructed inlet water source for the pond.

Muskrats are born engineers when it comes to housing and food storage to survive through a northern winter. They adapt accordingly in pond environments with an adequate food supply to hold them over.

Every pond is different, and it can be challenging at times to determine how and where to set traps for them - especially with fresh sign around. Once in awhile it takes a little time to figure that strategy out, but with keen observation and good techniques applied a decent harvest is possible.

Jonathan

Thanks for another good thread Johnny! I'd like to see your packbasket project too, as I've been working on a design. Please bring it on.