Muskrat, Top 9 Fascinating Facts About This Beautiful Animal.

Muskrat is considered as one of the giant rodents and is the sub-category of rats. Muskrats sometimes give an illusion of squirrel as both have sharp outed teeth. But the musk possesses a more round body with extremely short legs and very little ears hidden in its brown hairs.

Stay connected, because I am gonna breakdown all the fascinating facts about muskrat that You are going to enjoy.

Facts About Muskrat One By One

Fact #1

Muskrats are considered quite clever animals as they excellently puzzle their predators and hide themselves quickly in their nests and burrows. Also, they can stay underneath the water about 20 minutes consecutively.

Fact #2

Muskrats don’t hibernate but they stay active and alive beneath the snow throughout the winter.

Fact#3

These are bi-lipped animals as they have a separate set of lips inside their mouth behind their front incisors which help them chew and eat without swallowing water beneath the water surface.

Fact #4

They do have un-controlled front incisors growth, so they’ve to keep chewing hard things in order to keep them under control.

Fact #5

Muskrats are a favorite food for foxes, eagles, raccoons, owl, monks, and coyotes. All these animals prefer to hunt a healthy musk to acquire more protein present in its meat.

Fact #6

Including the tail, they can reach up to the length of 25 inches or little more sometimes. Normally the tail is around 11 inches around.

Fact #7

Musks have the ability to close their ears when they dive into the water.

Fact #8

Muskrat is a polygamous animal which means they have mating partners more than one. They mate in the season between March and July.

Fact #9

Female muskrat normally gives birth to around 7 babies, but the interesting thing here to know is that the pregnancy period lasts only 20-30 days.

You were reading facts about muskrat, let’s have a quick look at some scientific details about this beautiful animal.

Habitat of Muskrat

Sizzling weather is considered bad for muskrats, which is why they favor damp places & crisp tunnels on the shores of water origins. They also own a particular mechanism, called regional heterothermia. This mechanism controls the blood flow of the tail and feet. This holds them fresh and cool against the body generated heat.

In an extension of tunnels, they further build chalets. These chalets can often seal up waterways, making them a problem for humans.

Diet

They prefer to acquire nutrients most often from the greens like cattails, pondweed, waterlily, and roots. In addition, they also eat fish, crustaceans, salamanders, mussels, and snails.

According to some experts, muskrats eat consume one-third of their total weight. In fact, they don’t travel far away from their homes with this they require a large supply of nutrients.

Size

Muskrats are about the dimension of large rats. They get from 16-25 inches in length and weight in between 1.5 to 4 pounds. Their tail end adds extra length which is from 18-28 cm to their main length.

Taxonomy  

Here is the sequenced taxonomy of muskrats:

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