Muskrats: A Glimpse into Their World

 Recently I had to good fortune to locate a family of muskrats in a location that lends itself well to photography.  Muskrats are both valued for their warm soft fur and detested for their burrowing that ruins man-made ponds.  This family of muskrats are inhabiting a stream where their burrows cause no harm.

Foraging and grooming as depicted in the following photos occupies most of the time muskrats spend exposed above ground.  Life is always uncertain for a muskrat as death can come at any time or place whether killed in its burrow by a mink or caught up by a passing eagle as it swims on the surface.  In the last photo you will see the pointed snout of a snapping turtle just breaking the surface.  When the snapper began lurking near the muskrat burrows the muskrat activity ceased, a sign that the muskrats considered the turtle to be a creditable threat.