What does everyone see for muskrat populations in the west? Especially in regions where drought is not a factor. I seem to see that drought plays a factor in rat populations but where I live in eastern Oregon the ditches stay relatively full of water all year yet the population fluctuates like crazy. There are ditches I trap that some years I can’t find a feed bed where other years they are full of rats. The conditions have stayed the same. There is a really experienced trapper I know that believes it’s due to a disease (I can’t think of it now) he told me back in the 90’s all these ditches were full of rats, you could have caught thousands out of them but anymore even on a good year your probably catching under 100. It’s really too bad, I’m 21 years old and seem to have missed out on the really great rat trapping unless it bounces back. Curious about what other people are seeing, I have a friend in Montana that has sent me videos of ditches and swamps full of rat houses.

Our rats fluctuate with our rabbits and So do the beaver, tularemia

Hey Trapper38,

I just pulled some Oregon Game Commission reports from the 50's that you may find interesting. In 1950-51 11,264 muskrats were harvested in Malheur county alone. The following season 13,755.

Harney county in 51-52 had a harvest of 7668. The following season Harney had 13,975 rats taken. Two seasons after that in the 54-55 season just 1142 rats taken in Harney. In '55-'56 25 rats were reported for Harney.

All of this has to do with low water from drought causing the houses to freeze out. At least that's my theory.

In case you're interested in prices they averaged around $1.00 to $1.30 during these times.

I've got reports from the 40's up to the early 60's.

That is really interesting, I should have mentioned that most of these ditches around here are warm water and never freeze so freezing out isn’t what’s happening here.

Water is a critical part of the muskrat equation. Alone it can and will counter produce. An equation drives muskrats populations, some areas can control this and others are at Mother Nature s mercy

Does anyone see more rats then they used too? I’m mostly curious if my circumstance is just a local issue or a issue across the country as a whole.

Muskrats are few and far between here, you’ll find populations in small pockets along the river and that’s about it.

The river dries up to a trickle every few years so there are very few places where a population can really take hold. very few bodies of water here have an adequate food source for muskrat or beaver.

owls and hawks. Owls that hunt at night hurt big time

No muskrats, beaver, or nutria in my local area anymore. Lots and lots of fat gators. Has really affected our duck hunting. All the backwater behind beaver dams is no more. Beaver dams washed out and no beaver to repair them.

We get water we get rats here the water dries up the rats are gone until we get some major amounts of water again. I’m not sure where the seed comes from but they don’t take long to populate if they have the habitat to do so, it’s amazing.

If you have open water all year round my next guess is disease may be the issue. When disease is the culprit you will see a more cyclic effect to the population. Quite a few different diseases can affect rats including Tyzzers (Clostridium), hemorrhagic, tularemia and many more.




And of course, if its none of the above, it must be therefore.....wait for it......CLIMATE CHANGE!

Not from the west so I won't and can't comment on western rats and habitat, but over time here I have found that rats cycle or shift more and even further than I ever thought. During our early mating season rats cover a huge area where spring moisture levels are high and if we get enough rain these small scattered areas provide good summer habitat. The rats will typically move to deeper water, better winter food areas in the fall and winter. I also feel these movements or cycles etc. do help slow down disease spread and allow food sources to rebound. During drier summers around here is when we see higher losses due to habitat loss and thus lower fall and winter numbers.

Bryce