The other day i was showing my friend some GOLDEN muskrat runs from on top if the ice, and then a muskrat swam under our feet . After that the runs went cold. Later there were some new Golden runs and ANOTHER muskrat swam under my feet. Wondering why they are acting like this? Im not trapping them yet, and there is no hunting or trapping pressure at all, so i dont know whats going on. Thanks

Not a lot to tell you. Rats swim in their runs. I've never heard of spooking a rat and it abandoning its run.

Its usually more like put a colony trap in the run till it fills up and reset it and catch some more kind of situation.

I think the rats feel like something is going to dig them out of bank fern or house when you get too close. They scoot to another den for a while. They will return shortly in my experience.

ok thanks

This. They are rats......not too bright or trap shy. You really need to get yourself a dozen 110's and catch a few of them.

You're not spooking the muskrats away, they might avoid you if they see you, but they'll cruise right down the same run when they come back in 10 minutes. When I set for rats I set my way in, and check on my way back out, most times I pick up a few while I'm still setting. I've had them swim through a 110 I was still holding trying to stabilize it in the run, that startled me

I had that happen to me when setting a colony trap. I thought my fingers were bumping a stick, then the trap started shaking. Exciting couple of minutes.