Dang!

Chupacabras in Maryland!!

Yikes. That's got to be uncomfortable!

Yuck!
Looks like half the gals that 160user dated.

Poor thing!

Yea Mother Nature is so kind and full of sunshine. Not like us evil trappers.

Mother Nature can be a cruel mistress

Gross

Needs a bullet to do it a favor

Expanding their range

Maybe it can recover before the cold returns
Has to be miserable itching like that too

A couple years ago I got this pic on my trail camera. Took a second to realize it was a bear.

How did it ever make it thru the winter?

More evidence on why we need trapping.

I caught only one muskrat this season, in a beaver trap. It looked healthy and fat.

About 1/4 of its volume was this:




bon appétit

All it needs is a lot of chile!!

What is that, and what is the cause?

And that is the better looking half!

First look I thought it was some type of ape or chimpanzee.

Some kind of metacestodes (tapeworm larvae), of the kind that infect the intermediate host and then multiply by budding. I gave it to a parasitologist and he said such disco millet stuff in rodents is generally a southerly thing, but it has been spreading northwards probably because climate has been becoming warmer in the past few decades. Similar to how dermacentor ticks are advancing north and killing moose in your state.

I haven't seen such muskrats before. Muskrats usually spread Echinococcosis which is an even worse disease and more dangerous to humans. Up to 15% of all muskrats have Echinococcus cysts in their lungs and livers. This is why you should never feed muskrat meat to dogs, dogs that ingest the larvae become dangerous spreaders and their poop becomes bioweapon against humans and livestock. It's a very nasty infection that can develop quietly for a long time and decimate your quality of life, and not always treatable.