SCHIESS: Muskrat battle season has arrived

A violent commotion in blood stained muddy water startled me as I was leaving Market Lake last week after watching migrating waterfowl. It is springtime and the water-painters were two male muskrats fighting fiercely over breeding rights of the area. As I arrived the two swam away leaving trails of blood streaked water in their wake from large wounds on each combatant.

After the long winter where the males have lived peacefully with an adult female and her last brood of near-yearlings, these males now became deadly to each other. Often male siblings will fight to the death as the breeding season begins. All’s fair in a battle for love. So the life cycle begins again.

Muskrats are prolific breeders and a female may produce 20 kits from two to three litters each spring and summer. Each litter will stay with the mother about six weeks before they are kicked out of the den so the expectant female can raise another four to six babies. She gets no summer vacation or rest.

The den will be dug into a bank or in lodges built out of cattails or reeds in a marsh. Market Lake has plenty of both types of dens and produces thousands of muskrats each year. Entrance into each den is built underwater and angles up into a large nest area where a complex system of rooms, secret entrances and air ducts are built. Each winter or spring when the water drops, many of these dens collapse and new ones must be built. Damage to canals, dikes and pond banks are tremendous making these large rodents undesirable among water managers.

These rodents consume large amounts of food and mainly eat vegetation with cattails being their favorite major food source. When populations are not checked and muskrats become too numerous, an “eat-out” may occur which destroys the plants necessary for the rats survival. They are believed to have had a major role in determining the type of vegetation in wetlands throughout the West.

Life is short for most of these fur bearers. Most live less than a year as predators love to eat them. Mink are a major predator with coyotes, fox, hawks, eagles, owls, house cats, dogs and even fish dining on them. I have observed a whole muskrat carcass wedged on the edge of a Great-horned owl nest for the owlets to snack on at their leisure. During the spring many muskrats will be driven from their home waters and will become “road kill” as they cross roads looking for a new territory.

Trapping is also a major controller of these prolific grazers. Thousands of muskrats are harvested for their prized fur each year in Idaho. Prices per pelt has risen from about $2 in 2000 to as high at $16 in 2013. In three auctions in 2013 and 2014 the average price per pelt was about $10. The rising in fur prices has led to an increase in trapping licenses sold in Idaho. In 2006, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game sold 1001 licenses and that increased to 2057 sold in 2013.

Muskrat fur becomes prime in the fall and stays good through mid-April. The Southeast Idaho trapping season for muskrats this season runs from October 22 until April 15.

While out watching migrating waterfowl don’t be surprised to see a battle between muskrats along the shorelines in the early morning or late evening.