Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff Lauren Vogel bomb here. Most people don't know
Speaker 1: much about muskrats, perhaps other than remembering that classic nine
Speaker 1: seventies song about their ability to experience romantic love. While
Speaker 1: we can't speak to that, here's what we do know
Speaker 1: about muskrats. Muskrats are semi aquatic rodents. They're stout little
Speaker 1: critters with thick fur that can range in color from
Speaker 1: red to brown to black. It's also lighter on their
Speaker 1: throat and stomach. A short, stiff coat of under fur
Speaker 1: provides them with much needed insulation and buoyancy in the water.
Speaker 1: They can weigh anywhere from one to six pounds that's
Speaker 1: about half a kilo to three kilos, and can be
Speaker 1: a foot or too long, about thirty to sixty centimes.
Speaker 1: Their long tails are vertically flattened and sparsely haired. It
Speaker 1: acts as a rudder when a muskrat swims. There are
Speaker 1: sometimes staken for their rodent cousins, beavers, which are also
Speaker 1: semi aquatic. However, beavers are larger than muskrats, about the
Speaker 1: size of a small golden retriever, and their tails are
Speaker 1: horizontally flat like a paddle. For the article this episode
Speaker 1: is based on, has to Fork spoke with Margaret Gillespie,
Speaker 1: a naturalist with Squam Lakes Natural Science Center in New Hampshire.
Speaker 1: She said beavers and muskrats are both gnawing rodents, but
Speaker 1: beavers build dams that result in ponds where muskrats can live.
Speaker 1: Swimming is muskrats forte and they are fast. They can
Speaker 1: paddle up to three miles an hour that's five kilometers
Speaker 1: an hour. Their large hind feet are partially webbed and
Speaker 1: act as oars. They're also able to stay underwater without
Speaker 1: taking a breath for up to twenty minutes. You can
Speaker 1: find them in any type of fresh water, including ponds
Speaker 1: and lakes, but they prefer marshes with lots of vegetation
Speaker 1: and a steady depth of at least four to six
Speaker 1: feet that's one to two meters of water. They're swimming
Speaker 1: skills make up for their poor vision, hearing, and sense
Speaker 1: of smell. Muskrats are native to most of North America
Speaker 1: south of the tundra. Marshes provide muskrats a full menu
Speaker 1: of food, which is good because they eat about a
Speaker 1: third of their body weight every day. They typically eat roots, stocks,
Speaker 1: and cattails, with a few frogs and insects thrown in.
Speaker 1: In the winter, they swim below the surface ice to
Speaker 1: get to roots, because unlike beavers, they prefer food fresh
Speaker 1: and don't store it away for the cold months. Flaps
Speaker 1: in their mouths behind their teeth keep water from getting
Speaker 1: in while they're eating. Muskrats use mud and vegetation to
Speaker 1: build dome shaped lodges on tree stumps or anything that's
Speaker 1: partially submerged in water. Their lodges can be up to
Speaker 1: three feet that's one meter tall and contain dry chambers
Speaker 1: that the animals live in. They help them keep cool
Speaker 1: during the summer and warm during cold winters. Each lodge
Speaker 1: will have it least one underwater entrance to a tunnel
Speaker 1: extending out to dry land. Muskrats like to stay in
Speaker 1: large family groups within their own territories. The female muskrats
Speaker 1: are prolific childbearers and have one to three litters of
Speaker 1: five or six kits every year. They nest in chambers
Speaker 1: inside their lodges and have a gestation period of just
Speaker 1: about a month. Kids are born blind, but they're quick learners.
Speaker 1: They can swim at about twenty one days after birth.
Speaker 1: Muskrat moms will kick their offspring out of the lodge
Speaker 1: when they hit that one month birthday or if it
Speaker 1: just gets too crowded. They can live as long as
Speaker 1: ten years in captivity or about three or four years
Speaker 1: in the wild. Muskrats are active at any time of day,
Speaker 1: but are most active from mid afternoon through dusk. Muskrat
Speaker 1: life isn't just one big swimming party among the cattails,
Speaker 1: though there are many. Predators include raccoons, owls, hawks, fox
Speaker 1: mink otters, and bald eagles, as well as humans who
Speaker 1: trapped them for food, would and for fur. They're slow
Speaker 1: on the land, which is why they stick to the
Speaker 1: water so much. They're swimming skills often allow them to
Speaker 1: escape predators, diving under water or hiding in their lodges.
Speaker 1: Muskrats vocalize with a range of squeaks, chirps, and sort
Speaker 1: of whiney sounds, which often serve as warning of nearby intruders.
Speaker 1: But that's not their only form of communication, and this
Speaker 1: brings us to how they got their name. Muskrats also
Speaker 1: communicate by gland secretion. Gillespie said, rather than being malodorous
Speaker 1: like skunk spray, it has a sweet smell. Its main
Speaker 1: purpose is for scent marking to convey the animal's presence
Speaker 1: in the area. Muskrats can be considered pests on farms.
Speaker 1: Wild muskrats will eat stores of grain and sometimes plug
Speaker 1: the drainage tiles and fields. And since muskrats also have
Speaker 1: a habit of building their homes near dikes or dams,
Speaker 1: the lodges can weaken the structures and eventually destroy them.
Speaker 1: So when a bald eagle snatches up at muskrat for
Speaker 1: dinner or a fur trader traps one, that actually helps
Speaker 1: keep the population in balance and more dikes and dam's intact.
Speaker 1: But back to that song, Muskrat Love. Although it was
Speaker 1: first recorded in the early nineteen seventies by songwriter Willis
Speaker 1: Allan Ramsay and covered soon after by the band America,
Speaker 1: it didn't become a hit until pop duo Captain and
Speaker 1: Tanil covered it in nineteen seventy six. It peaked at
Speaker 1: number four on the Hot one chart that year when
Speaker 1: they sang the song at a July nineteen seventy six
Speaker 1: White House dinner honoring Queen Elizabeth the Second. A guest
Speaker 1: who attended the dinner was later quoted as saying that
Speaker 1: it was in very poor taste to sing about mating
Speaker 1: muskrats before the Queen. Today's episode is based on the
Speaker 1: article muskrats are fat little rodents with a signature smell
Speaker 1: on house to forks dot com, written by Meg Sparwin.
Speaker 1: Rain Stuff is production of by Heart Radio in partnership
Speaker 1: with house to works dot com, and it's produced by
Speaker 1: Tyler Klang. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit
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