MUSKRAT APARTMENT HOUSES

     Muskrats, meadow voles, which are a kind of mouse, and marsh rice rats are adaptable rodents that are native to parts of North America.  Muskrats live along farmland streams and in marshes throughout much of the continent. Meadow voles dwell in grassy areas and in farmland in the northern half of the United States, and most of Canada and Alaska.  Rice rats inhabit marshes and salt marshes in the southeastern part of the United States, north to Kansas and southern New Jersey. 

     All these interesting rodents inhabit grassy and reedy habitats, which gives them another thing in common.  And they are vegetarians mostly, eating greens, seeds and grains.  So it's no surprise that all three species share certain tidal marshes along the Atlantic Coast, and live at once, but independently of each other, in muskrat homes built by the muskrats themselves.

     Muskrats have foot-long bodies and seven inch, flattened tails they use for swimming.  They excavate burrows in streambanks at the normal water level of streams and creeks and tunnel up to create a living area, which also becomes a nursery when females deliver.  But muskrats that live in ponds and marshes build homes of piled-up plants in the middle of those still waters.  There they are relatively safe from predators, including  bald eagles, great horned owls, red foxes and coyotes, but not from mink who can crawl into those hay-cock muskrat homes. 

     Meadow voles make nests of chewed grass under standing or matted-down, tall grass in fields, meadows, and along roadsides.  There they live and give birth, relatively safe from hawks and owls, but not from weasels, foxes and house cats who sniff them out.

     Rice rats are semi-aquatic in fresh-water marshes and coastal salt marshes.  They have five-inch bodies and seven-inch tails.  They, too, make grassy and/or reliving quarters under matted-down grass and reeds, above the high-water level, of course.  

     All these rodent species overlap ranges at least in southern New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland floodplains.  And where they all live in the same marshes, some meadow voles and rice rats live in muskrat hay-cock homes, with no benefits or problems to the muskrats.  There all live in relative safety from predators, and above normal water levels and incoming tides.  And there all these rodents raise broods of young.  Obviously meadow voles and rice rats benefit from living in muskrat homes.

     This is one interesting example of how life adapts to situations that enhance its survival.  Muskrats, meadow voles and rice rats all living together in muskrat homes in marshes is intriguing to acknowledge, even if one never sees that first-hand in marshes.    

               

     

         





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