Muskrat Activity In Cattail Marsh Habitats
Dec 13, 2009 6:22:53 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Dec 13, 2009 6:22:53 GMT -5
While out with my camera today I thought I would document some muskrat activity in a cattail marsh for my Trapping Library, and to share with those on the forum who may not be familiar with these structures.
Winter muskrat houses, lodges or huts are built in the fall, and so are their feed beds or "push ups".They are often misread by new or beginning trappers as being one in the same. But they are completely different from each other.
In this type of habitat, the living quarters are much larger than the feed beds and are made primarily from cattail plant stock.
The huts in these examples are about 4-6 feet high and up to 8 feet in diameter. I have seen them much larger than these over the years in some Wisconsin marshes.
By contrast, the feed beds are significantly smaller and made up of finer vegetation - either from submergent aquatic vegetation, or from grasses and root stock sources on land adjacent to the water.
From a distance in this case, you can tell that they are different, mainly by their size, color, shape and the materials they are comprised of. Those pictured in the open water area are about 3 feet in diameter and 2-3 feet high.
This is a smaller one adjacent to the shoreline and was actively under construction. It appeared to be almost finished. It was about 2 feet in diameter and about 18" high.
If you look close enough, you can see the finer green vegetation and fresh chewings from tubers and stems.
Thought this might be a little helpful showing muskrat sign in a cattail marsh and how to tell the difference between both activities prior to ice up to get them through the winter in this northern habitat type.
The small feed bed still under construction got my juices motivated. This afternoon I am going to set up a trail camera near it in an attempt to capture a few videos of the activity there.
Will also look for additional sign related to this habitat - closer views of the chewings and digging on land.
I spent the afternoon at the marsh yesterday to document this habitat in a little more detail for this discussion, and set up a trail camera near a feed bed actively under construction - shown in the last two photos above.
That feeder was added to since when I first found it Friday morning. Had to put the waders on to photograph it in more detail to show what they haul into and on one. Overnight it gained about 8" in height and almost a foot more in diameter. Here is that one showing the variety of vegetation in its makeup.
There is always a single leading edge to these that I am aware of. You can see the "landing pad" approach to this one in the lower left of this photo. A perfect location for a #1-1/2 long spring. Though the season doesn't open until Wednesday, I'll show you tomorrow how I would set the trap there.
Here are closer views of additional food resources deposited.
This one is completed and is about 50 yards north of the one above. Again, note the extended "landing" in the front and to the right on this one.
As mentioned before how they will often use grasses and their roots by digging on land, this sign was on land near this one. Note the trail coming from the water. These are not to be confused with old, caved in bank dens. There are no tunnels or borrows in these examples - just diggings for food items.
And examples of their signs of digging for material.
Here is another finished one in open water away from the shoreline unlike the previous two.
Not all muskrat droppings are like this most classic example of what they usually look like - almost separate individual pellets.
There size, shape, color and texture varies seasonally in different habitats, depending upon what they are eating at the time.
In open marsh environments their droppings tend to be more on the mushy side in comparison and look more like these samples that I photographed Saturday at a typical muskrat "toilet" area.
If you look closely at this blob you can see that the "pellets" are mushed together. There are 5 or 6 in this one.
The light colored object to the left of this feed bed is my trail camera in the water tucked among the cattail stems.
Closer views of how I mounted it in the crotch of my 4 foot long maple branch sling shot that I made at home before I poked it in the mud there. It is about 18" above the waterline and around 4 feet to the left of the feeder.
I have this set on a 60 second video mode. I am going to check it tomorrow. It will have been active for nearly three days and two full nights. If all goes well, the images should prove to be interesting, especially the time of day and their behavior during the construction process.
These expansive marshes are tough to trap.
Access to them is often difficult and arduous. I did it for many years, working out of a duck skiff loaded with #1-1/2 long springs, a few #110's, bundles of willow stakes, a long handled canoe type paddle and an 8 foot long push pole with a duck bill on the end of it. It is a young man's sport. I couldn't do it physically now at my age, but my mind can. So....on that note, I am happy to share the memory and experience by telling younger trappers what muskrats tell us about themselves who live in marshes.
The best laid plans of mice and men do not always work out as intended. My attempt to capture this anticipated show and tell with that camera set up as shown for over two full nights and almost three days ended in total disappointment.
When I found that individual feed bed it was actively under construction, but with little that I know about how muskrats build these winter stashes, I assumed too much. However, I had a gut feeling I may have been a little late for this one. Others that I saw that were similar in size and composition next to the shoreline were completed already - no current, fresh deposit activity on them that I could detect.
I am not sure how these aquatic engineers decide how when enough is enough to quit making one of these where they decide to build one. I think it might be related to the amount of vegetation available within an immediate range of their swimming circle and time spent underwater needed to find and dig this stuff up.
At first I thought the camera may have been placed too close to the point of aim. That was not the reveal when I moved in front of it yesterday, on purpose, to set the camera off to show how I would set a #1-1/2 long spring trap on the approach platform. That was the only video that I got from there over that time.
When I came home and downloaded that SD card, I was bummed out. Nothing on the camera reveal except for my trap setting thingy. And, so it goes.
I spent almost two hours at that location yesterday looking for a fresh start-up feed bed to set the camera up at. Nothing to be found anywhere. Oh, poop!
Between the number of huts and feed beds observed at this location, I kinda concluded that there was probably not more than about 15 muskrats getting ready for winter there, and they were finished with the preparations to survive that spell in their life cycle until open water invited breeding for the next round of offspring to eventually take up space there to fill the void of family members who may have not been able to show up next time for various reasons - old age, disease and mink predation are in that formula. And, of course, otter, hawks and owls might have been on stage in the choreography of that life cycle's menu.
I'll be ahead of the game next year if I am still vertical and above ground myself. Ha!
Anyway, here are still photos of how I would have set the #1-1/2 long spring at the landing on this feed bed during trapping season. Punch a dimple in it either with your boot or hand so the trap pan is about 1-2 inches underwater.
Look close at these two photos to see where the trap pan is. You'll have to go back to this feed bed's photos shown earlier above to extrapolate my trap placement orientation.
From my experience and observations the feeders are made for winter use, and after ice up, muskrats tunnel under and into them to access the stash.
I believe the severity of the winter, the muskrat population densities in the individual huts using this food resource and the availability of submergent vegetation within their underwater swimming range to harvest food on the bottom (how long they can hold their breath to graze and return to the lodge) besides using the reserve feed beds, all factor into the frequency and need as to when these stashes are used.
Some winters they tunnel under them all; during others they may access and use only half of them that way. There are a lot of unsolved mysteries associated with muskrat behavior during any given year of a population's life cycle and requirements for overwinter survival.
Jonathan
Winter muskrat houses, lodges or huts are built in the fall, and so are their feed beds or "push ups".They are often misread by new or beginning trappers as being one in the same. But they are completely different from each other.
In this type of habitat, the living quarters are much larger than the feed beds and are made primarily from cattail plant stock.
The huts in these examples are about 4-6 feet high and up to 8 feet in diameter. I have seen them much larger than these over the years in some Wisconsin marshes.
By contrast, the feed beds are significantly smaller and made up of finer vegetation - either from submergent aquatic vegetation, or from grasses and root stock sources on land adjacent to the water.
From a distance in this case, you can tell that they are different, mainly by their size, color, shape and the materials they are comprised of. Those pictured in the open water area are about 3 feet in diameter and 2-3 feet high.
This is a smaller one adjacent to the shoreline and was actively under construction. It appeared to be almost finished. It was about 2 feet in diameter and about 18" high.
If you look close enough, you can see the finer green vegetation and fresh chewings from tubers and stems.
Thought this might be a little helpful showing muskrat sign in a cattail marsh and how to tell the difference between both activities prior to ice up to get them through the winter in this northern habitat type.
The small feed bed still under construction got my juices motivated. This afternoon I am going to set up a trail camera near it in an attempt to capture a few videos of the activity there.
Will also look for additional sign related to this habitat - closer views of the chewings and digging on land.
I spent the afternoon at the marsh yesterday to document this habitat in a little more detail for this discussion, and set up a trail camera near a feed bed actively under construction - shown in the last two photos above.
That feeder was added to since when I first found it Friday morning. Had to put the waders on to photograph it in more detail to show what they haul into and on one. Overnight it gained about 8" in height and almost a foot more in diameter. Here is that one showing the variety of vegetation in its makeup.
There is always a single leading edge to these that I am aware of. You can see the "landing pad" approach to this one in the lower left of this photo. A perfect location for a #1-1/2 long spring. Though the season doesn't open until Wednesday, I'll show you tomorrow how I would set the trap there.
Here are closer views of additional food resources deposited.
This one is completed and is about 50 yards north of the one above. Again, note the extended "landing" in the front and to the right on this one.
As mentioned before how they will often use grasses and their roots by digging on land, this sign was on land near this one. Note the trail coming from the water. These are not to be confused with old, caved in bank dens. There are no tunnels or borrows in these examples - just diggings for food items.
And examples of their signs of digging for material.
Here is another finished one in open water away from the shoreline unlike the previous two.
Not all muskrat droppings are like this most classic example of what they usually look like - almost separate individual pellets.
There size, shape, color and texture varies seasonally in different habitats, depending upon what they are eating at the time.
In open marsh environments their droppings tend to be more on the mushy side in comparison and look more like these samples that I photographed Saturday at a typical muskrat "toilet" area.
If you look closely at this blob you can see that the "pellets" are mushed together. There are 5 or 6 in this one.
The light colored object to the left of this feed bed is my trail camera in the water tucked among the cattail stems.
Closer views of how I mounted it in the crotch of my 4 foot long maple branch sling shot that I made at home before I poked it in the mud there. It is about 18" above the waterline and around 4 feet to the left of the feeder.
I have this set on a 60 second video mode. I am going to check it tomorrow. It will have been active for nearly three days and two full nights. If all goes well, the images should prove to be interesting, especially the time of day and their behavior during the construction process.
These expansive marshes are tough to trap.
Access to them is often difficult and arduous. I did it for many years, working out of a duck skiff loaded with #1-1/2 long springs, a few #110's, bundles of willow stakes, a long handled canoe type paddle and an 8 foot long push pole with a duck bill on the end of it. It is a young man's sport. I couldn't do it physically now at my age, but my mind can. So....on that note, I am happy to share the memory and experience by telling younger trappers what muskrats tell us about themselves who live in marshes.
The best laid plans of mice and men do not always work out as intended. My attempt to capture this anticipated show and tell with that camera set up as shown for over two full nights and almost three days ended in total disappointment.
When I found that individual feed bed it was actively under construction, but with little that I know about how muskrats build these winter stashes, I assumed too much. However, I had a gut feeling I may have been a little late for this one. Others that I saw that were similar in size and composition next to the shoreline were completed already - no current, fresh deposit activity on them that I could detect.
I am not sure how these aquatic engineers decide how when enough is enough to quit making one of these where they decide to build one. I think it might be related to the amount of vegetation available within an immediate range of their swimming circle and time spent underwater needed to find and dig this stuff up.
At first I thought the camera may have been placed too close to the point of aim. That was not the reveal when I moved in front of it yesterday, on purpose, to set the camera off to show how I would set a #1-1/2 long spring trap on the approach platform. That was the only video that I got from there over that time.
When I came home and downloaded that SD card, I was bummed out. Nothing on the camera reveal except for my trap setting thingy. And, so it goes.
I spent almost two hours at that location yesterday looking for a fresh start-up feed bed to set the camera up at. Nothing to be found anywhere. Oh, poop!
Between the number of huts and feed beds observed at this location, I kinda concluded that there was probably not more than about 15 muskrats getting ready for winter there, and they were finished with the preparations to survive that spell in their life cycle until open water invited breeding for the next round of offspring to eventually take up space there to fill the void of family members who may have not been able to show up next time for various reasons - old age, disease and mink predation are in that formula. And, of course, otter, hawks and owls might have been on stage in the choreography of that life cycle's menu.
I'll be ahead of the game next year if I am still vertical and above ground myself. Ha!
Anyway, here are still photos of how I would have set the #1-1/2 long spring at the landing on this feed bed during trapping season. Punch a dimple in it either with your boot or hand so the trap pan is about 1-2 inches underwater.
Look close at these two photos to see where the trap pan is. You'll have to go back to this feed bed's photos shown earlier above to extrapolate my trap placement orientation.
From my experience and observations the feeders are made for winter use, and after ice up, muskrats tunnel under and into them to access the stash.
I believe the severity of the winter, the muskrat population densities in the individual huts using this food resource and the availability of submergent vegetation within their underwater swimming range to harvest food on the bottom (how long they can hold their breath to graze and return to the lodge) besides using the reserve feed beds, all factor into the frequency and need as to when these stashes are used.
Some winters they tunnel under them all; during others they may access and use only half of them that way. There are a lot of unsolved mysteries associated with muskrat behavior during any given year of a population's life cycle and requirements for overwinter survival.
Jonathan