Animal · United States, Canada, Mexico
Muskrat
Ondatra zibethicus — the name this animal has in the language scientists everywhere share.
The muskrat is a water rodent that builds its own island out of reeds and mud, and it can stay under water far longer than any person could.
Picture credit: Diego Delso (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Linda Tanner (CC BY 2.0) · D. Gordon E. Robertson (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where does the muskrat live?
Home: Wetlands, rivers, lakes and ponds.
In the wild it lives in these countries: the United States, Canada, Mexico, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Russia.
Conservation status from the IUCN: not in danger.
The short profile
Fully grown: 20–35 cm long. It weighs about 1.3 kilograms. On the menu: both plants and meat.
The story behind it
A muskrat can swim under water for twelve to seventeen minutes without coming up. In a marsh it piles reeds and mud into a mound up to ninety centimetres high, called a push-up, with the entrance below the waterline — so the way in is under the ice all winter, where no fox can follow. In snowy places the muskrat plugs the openings with vegetation and renews the plug every single day, which keeps the inside above freezing while the marsh outside is solid. It is a house that has to be looked after constantly, and it does not last: spring floods sweep many push-ups away, and the muskrat simply builds the next one. Everything about the animal is arranged for water — even the tail, which is flattened sideways and works like an oar.
Find it on the globe
Muskrat is there as a tiny animated figure that breathes and looks around. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
Is a muskrat a beaver?
No, and the tail gives it away. A beaver's tail is flat like a paddle held horizontally; a muskrat's is flattened sideways, like a thin oar. A muskrat is also about ten times lighter.
Why is the entrance under water?
So that nothing can walk in. A fox or a mink would have to dive and swim to reach the chamber, and in winter the whole doorway sits under the ice.
Where does the name come from?
From its smell. The animal marks its territory with a strong musky scent, which is where both the English and the German name come from — it is not a rat, but a vole.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
Last checked: