Nice shot and good propaganda

It's mostly cattails and bullrushes here too. The spot I was referring to is about 150 miles south of me. Lots of phrags down there and there's still rats. We have phrags along the lake shore, but the marshes are still mostly cattails. On the big lake you have everything as the phrags have not taken over totally. The cylclic change in water levels of the big lake keeps things fresh, though not always ideal.

I would say that that marsh is a little top heavy with rats with all those push-ups every 100 feet apart. Could you imagine the houses in the cattails 200 yds away.
That is a lot of aquatic weed pulled up for feed. It must look like a time bomb went off after ice out.

I have only trapped twice in those conditions and the rats looked like swiss cheese even when you are getting 200 a day =75 good paying rats in prices.

put some water wolves in the equation and poof gone are the rat numbers

In December we had some rare open water trapping. There was a huge eagle's nest practically overlooking the marsh we were trapping. We saw eagles every day and even though we had many exposed rats, some live, we never had eagles bother our catch. I was surprised. There was a lot of rats, too.

Eagles do get some rats, no doubt. But to associate them to a decline in a rodent population may be a stretch. I’ve seen them sitting on the ice on a nice spring day, very similar to the photo, but they happened to be pulling up carp that had froze out and bloated up to the surface. It was cool to see. Marshlands are steeped with prey species and muskrats in healthy habitats provide decent surpluses. Only makes sense to see an occasional eagle.

Everything eats muskrats. That's why they they reproduce so prolifically. Habitat is the key.

Key and then some.

Muskrat Habitat relationship is a very complicated subject. Wetlands are not all equal, they are fluid organisms and ever evolving Muskrats are their keystone specie. They have the ability to influence and alter the marshscape.

The ability to recognize and understand these intimate relationships would go along ways towards getting us out of this rut.

It ain’t crystal ball or magic dust. It’s predictable.

Has anyone ever seen a marsh scenario where
extremely high beaver populations out-compete
muskrats in interspecific competition within the
habitat resulting in poor muskrat reproduction
and/or out-migration of the muskrat population
to new habitat ?

w

Rats are nocturnal right? Owls are nocturnal. How many nights it take an owl to catch the kits out of a pond once they leave the den ? Reason they are called death from above.

As for habitat changes. There are 3 pay lakes close to me. Been here for 25 plus years. In the 90's the owners had me catching rats each year. Did good for 3 nights then catch dropped off. Ran into one of them back in summer and ask him if he still had rat trouble. Said no hadn't seen a rat in any of the ponds in 5 years......But ponds are the same . In fact 2 are not being fished out of and have cat tails and vegetation growing thick around the edges. What has changed in that little eco system? Hawks nesting in between the 2 holding ponds. Owls were sitting on the old concession stands.

Jayburd,

You done trapped those rats into permanent extinction.

They all migrated to Ohio rather than face you again !!! lol lol lol

w

Cattails.....whats a cattail? The rats in my area of PA probably see more seng than they do cattails. My rats, I suspect, eat corn, grass and soybeans. What I dont understand is- in my scenario, one spot gives up 6-8 rats, further upstream, 1 or 2....then.....none.....then.....none...then 1 or 2 then 6-8 again. Same creek, pretty much same habitat, farm country only a couple/few miles in distance- I dont get it, what made those 2 spots so special? Back in the 70s/80s and into the 90s every spot gave up a bunch, even with a little competition.

yes it happens in small glacial punch-bowl lakes in the parkland area. 5-10 acres water with cattail lined beaver move in for the shoreline popular= 3 years later cattails gone colony beaver @ 10 bvs and eating cattails all summer = no rats left because not cattails and no trees within 200 feet from water

I attended a discussion about 5 years ago regarding the cattail issue. I found it very informative. The wide leaf is the native one we have. The narrow leaf is an invasive cattail. Both of these types are perenials and develop large root masses which can provide all season food for rats, along with cover and structure building material. The culpert according to this speaker was the hybrid that forms when the two cross. This hybrid is much faster growing, chokes out other plants but is an annual plant and therefore develops much less root mass that can be utilized for under the ice or winter food. During open water times at least in the northrn tier of rat areas any slough, marsh ditch etc. can hold rats or provide food and cover, but if the area has less winter food or none those rats will be fewer, lower quality, or migrated out or died out.

Bryce

Bryce thank you for this view point. Any decent theory needs to be examined and challenged.

I am simply sharing my observations over decades of avid muskrat pursuits. I discovered years ago it takes a “certain” marsh to meet expectations. One where populations were strong. I discovered that once I found this marsh several advantages were associated with it. The rats ran larger than normal. The catch percentages better and they repeat performance increased. The problem was these marshes rose and fell. After a few short years the populations sagged and the quality of the rats declined. I wondered why?

It seemed the marshes were changing, loose passable vegetation had slowly grown dense. Easy picking had become overgrazed and returned to open water areas. These changes can easily go unnoticed as winter grazing damage wont show until after the following growing season. The changes can really blend in, Often appearing like nothing happens.

So to me it is the vegetation itself. The creation of the root mass (bog). Not this type or that. Just emergents doing what they do as they age. And the longer it took to discover a new strain the easier it would be to point our fingers at it. Because degradation never rests.

I have seen and worked many standout marshes over the years. I am confident that if the powers that be want muskrats we could be over run with them despite cattail strains or predators.

Hope this makes some sense.

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This photo offers an example of a regeneration bay. I suspect in a year or two previous the soil bank was exposed. Tender new vegetation ensued. The rats got their “spinach”. Unfortunately the result appears shallow, as the only thing remaining above the ice line is rat huts. This would lead to overgrazing and habitat destruction. Guessing the following year the only thing remaining is waves. Rats do use submergent vegetation as food and building materials as well, it just isn’t sustainable in my experience.

Alabama must be the same thing, already turned in 3.