high water/muskrat habits

[trappnman]

went out to eat last night at the Elba house, and on way there and back drove through some of my old trapping/hunting ground marshes.

and boy is the water high. Its been a lot of years if ever, that its been this full at this time of year.

one thing that was interesting doing the otter study, was that i was in the marshes all day for weeks at a time, during sept and early Oct- and I was amazed at all the rats I was catching, with "no sign" and no houses to be seen. Then it was like in 2 days- houses everywhere. I never would have guessed, that the houses are a late addition, and that most of the summer they don't exist.

so I was thinking, where the heck are those rats living, this time of year? cause bank dens are out, with rare rare exceptions, simply cause there are for all practical purposes, no banks.

you think they just go under grasses etc on the shores, or hunker down on protected logs? where are they having their young- in nests on shore? any thoughts?

I admit, I know little about marsh rats habits, other than how to catch them in the fall.

[TrapperRon]

Why would there not be bank runs ? They must be raising there young somewhere. Sometimes bank runs are very hard to find, they may be concealed between tree roots or even entrances that are quite a ways out in the water. Old beaver houses ?

[mustelameister]

Last summer when the river was high, way high, I took a scouting trip to answer the same question: Where are the 'rats? Well, here are a few places.

This one had built a "nest" on top of this log. The water was up over the islands for most the summer.



This is the tip of a large beaver lodge.



Down inside the tip there was a muskrat sittin' there watching me.



Many 'rats had abandoned the river bottoms and worked their way up feeder streams and rivers. There were quite a few road kills.

I'm sure the predators had their bellies full.

Bank dens were out of the question, as the bank was underwater most the summer.

The river never came down until winter, and then it was still high. Didn't get normal until this spring.

[makete]

If the water is way too high, cant it drown out a bank den?

I would think ( I know, I shouldnt do that much ) that they would find some type of cover in which to live and breed. A little spot of cover would do them nice. Somewhere nice and dry, but close to the water.

[TRay]

I was wondering the same thing as we have had high water all summer. In visiting with a guy who is doing a lot of aerial spraying he has commented several times about all the rats he is seeing in the rushes from the air. Seems that around here they are just staying in the rushes on anything that is floating.

It is amazing how fast they can build the houses, and whatever the trigger is for it to happen the whole marsh seems to go at the same time.

[calvin]

Same here on the river bottms last year. Saw rats swimming around but no huts...like they were waiting for the last minute to see if the water would fall enough to build huts. Not a hut in the cattail marshes until last minute (a week before freeze up) then only sporatic. There is definetely a certain water depth that they will no longer build in...even though everything else is right. I saw rats piled on beaver logs just waiting without a bank in sight. Don't know what happened to those rats come freezup as it was only a few days after I saw them. I assume more of the same this year on the larger rivers. Maybe worse if things don't dry up quick.

[trappnman]

Ron- there are no banks.