We've always had rats here in Northern Utah. We have a lot of good habitat. It was common for me to catch 500 plus rats a year on a small line as I drove back and forth to work, mostly in ditches. Dedicated trappers would catch thousands. The sloughs and swamps were spotted with rat huts and there were quite a few who trapped. Now that I'm retired and have more time, it's difficult to catch even a hundred rats in the same areas. I seldom see another trapper. There are very few if any rat houses in the sloughs. I sure wish I knew where they went cause I like trapping spring rats There have always been hawks, mink, and foxes, but it seemed when the raccoons showed up thirty years ago, everything else declined: muskrats, pheasants, grouse, even local ducks. What's your thoughts on that? Are the raccoons to blame?

It's possible. But I have studied old game commission reports here in Oregon and it appears that there are cyclic forces at work that are more weather related than anything else. When there were several drought years it really walloped the rats. You would see major freeze outs on their huts. Malheur county went from harvesting over 170,000 rats one year in the early 50's to just 275 a few years later.

Having said that, the nutrias really did decimate the rats over in western Oregon. Same thing happened in the bayous of Louisiana. They would dig out and kill the litters of rats in the spring and summer. Darn ornery critters. So it's possible that a new introduction of something could have an effect.

Raptors,coon and flooding are big reasons for the rat decline.
Tom

Sounds like you should start trapping raccoons

Oh, I've been dubbed the coon assassin here in these parts. I don't like them and all my neighbors know it. I've even hooked a number of my friends and neighbors up with DP's We're doing our best to thin the numbers.

I would be willing to bet much of the decline nationwide ties back to farming practices in some way. Either clean farming, pesticides, or something.

I doubt it very much.Many ponds I used to take 30 to 50 rats every year,haven't been farmed in many years,and were never sprayedwith pesticides.
I am lucky to get 5 rats in these places .I do hunt them for ducks and geese and one thing there are plenty of---Eagles,hawks and owls.
The rat populations have decreased every year--as the raptor population has continued to climb.
Rats don't stand a chance.
Tom

That’s why we farm. Trying to make a living plus get blamed for killing everything including the climate. Cattle farts!!

I farm and am in the irrigation industry (self employed) and my take on it is that there are several reasons -- but i think that one of the biggest that has not happened recently was the banning of ddt. Our raptor population is thriving. The other thing that i have noticed is that farming practices do have an effect (positive or negative). For instance the populations of coon, possum, nutria have declined locally-- i think mostly due to the fact that we went from raising cannery crops almost exclusively and changed largely to hazlenuts and grass seed. now the squirels and geese loved it, their populations are thriving, and i am seeing quail again. but i think that the nutria don't like either the phosphide or one of the growth regulators used on the grass seed. The coon and the possum have had their food sources altered and are adjusting to that. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction and sometimes that reaction does not show itself for a while. It is a very complex system that we live in and I think that the city dwellers do not have a clue of where food comes from or how much that they play a role in affecting everything -- lets talk about cities waste discharge into rivers and plastics in landfills amongst many other items.

The ever increasing amount of paved surface adds to a larger amount of runoff from every rain .Also lawn is the largest single "crop" in the US . And todays homeowner often over uses fertilizer and chemicals on those lawn . A farmer spends tens of thousands of dollars on his pesticides and fertilizer .It is to his benefit to not over use .The average homeowner buys a few bottles or bags of chemicals . They never read the application rate or know how many square feet of grass they even have . Their thought is one is good ,two is better ,three is even better yet ,so lets use four . Multiplied by the number of homeowners the chemicals over used is huge .

Prey species are installed to support predators.

With more predators shouldn’t there b more prey?

IMO predators/prey relationships has little to no effect on a habitat friendly muskrat population. Then again I have difficulty over trapping them as well. Maybe it’s because I have that luxury to pass on the marginal spots?

I have a unique study area that includes a very large marsh. What size slough is more susceptible to predators?

I have some land I bought ten years ago with a lot of swamp and the first year I trapped 30 Raccoon, second year 20 Raccoon. Few muskrat 10 years ago, today muskrat huts and dens everywhere. So I say the Raccoon gets blamed as usual.

Thats good a lot raccoons though as I predict they are going to be worth $40 each next fall.

You know something we don't, or is that sarcasm?

We have a lot of stock ponds around the area. I have kinda kept track of which ones have rats in them and which ones don't. Trees around the pond seem to be in the equation. My take on it, if there are trees for owls to set in, there will be few to no rats in the pond. Very rare to find a rat along a creek also. My thoughts are, birds of prey are the biggie, and I believe that eagles and hawks take few, but the owls (night shift) are the big killers of rats. Coons are oppertunists, but cover their territorys better, so they don't miss many oppertunitys to eat a rat themselves. JMO

Sarcasm but it sure would be nice to see $40.00 dollar raccoons. I think prices are starting to get a little bit better though.

Both of these comments are Excellent!!!

I think you're on to something. I haven't been able to prove it scientifically but I know Germany has outlawed herbicides that we spray on the fields like liquid candy.

Canada has also banned 2,4d and glyphosate for residential use.

There is always a tipping balance in the math between a growing , stable, and declining population. 10 percent increase in predation could certainly be the amount that causes a decline. People want to believe in unicorns, not the simple explanations of declines. Apparently it is human nature to look at everything but the simple explanation.