Study offers a look beneath the surface of muskrat behaviour
New research could help protect and manage an animal considered both beneficial and invasive.
April 10, 2025 By Bev Betkowski
A new U of A study offers a closer look at the preferred food and winter shelter of muskrats — which could help manage a species that is considered both ecologically valuable and invasive. (Photo: Supplied)
A detailed look at the preferred food and shelter of muskrats provided through a new University of Alberta study could help an animal that is considered both a beneficial and invasive species.
“Muskrats are a key species important to freshwater ecosystems across North America, so understanding how they use their environment is critical to their management,” says Glynnis Hood, professor emerita at Augustana Campus and a co-author on the research.
The water-loving rodent provides ecological benefits in its native North American territory, such as feeding on invasive types of cattails that can choke out other plants, and also holds cultural importance for Indigenous communities, she notes.
At the same time, it carries an intestinal parasite that can cause a water-borne disease known as “beaver fever,” it damages agricultural dugouts for watering livestock, and outside North America, it is considered an invasive species.
To both protect and control muskrat populations, “it’s important to understand how habitat variables influence their distribution,” Hood notes.
U of A research. Real-World impact.
Safeguarding oceans is proctecting our future. Learn how the U of A is striving to achieve the UN's goal of preserving marine life by tackling pollution and advancing sustainable fisheries.
Conducted in Alberta’s Miquelon Lake Provincial Park in the UNESCO Beaver Hills Biosphere, the study used on-the-ground field surveys to hone in on 10 ponds where the animals were living.
The method allowed for a magnified look at their habitat, providing the type of information that could then be combined with other scientific data like remote sensing to provide “a more robust assessment of habitat use,” she adds.
“That’s important to determine the true factors influencing where muskrats live and the type of surroundings they prefer.”
Researchers surveyed where muskrats had built their huts and smaller, temporary shelters called push-ups — mounds of soft underwater plants shoved through the ice surface.
The research explored how close the structures were to the nearest patches of shoreline aquatic vegetation, what those plants were and what kind the muskrats preferred to eat.
The study revealed that while more huts were located close to cattail stands, the animals preferred to browse on rushes, a less common type of vegetation that grows around ponds.
That challenges the more common theory that cattails are the key feature for muskrats, she suggests.
“Cattails are definitely important to them for purposes like building their huts, but it shows that they use different plants for different things; other types of plants likely play important roles, too.”
Every species has an ecological role to play. All animals have inherent value, and the more we understand them, the more we come to appreciate them.
Brianna Lorentz
(Photo: Supplied)
The research also highlighted the importance of recognizing differences between huts and push-ups when identifying the most important habitat features for muskrats.
“Often they are grouped together in studies as dwellings and assessed as one feature, but they need to be considered as fundamentally different,” Hood says.
In late summer and into the fall, muskrats build their huts using rushes or cattails, rather than the underwater plants used for push-ups, and feed on parts of the hut over the winter.
A muskrat hut in Miquelon Lake Provincial Park. (Photo: Supplied)
In contrast, the push-ups are used as small, temporary shelters that give muskrats resting spots to breathe while foraging longer distances under the ice for food. Like huts, they can also be eaten by muskrats throughout the winter.
Recognizing the distinctions between the two dwellings “tells us what is important about the creation and use of each one, and that can help control or support muskrat populations,” Lorentz notes.
The information could, for example, help land managers and conservationists preserve or rehabilitate pond areas to attract muskrats there, or modify the landscape to keep them away.
Because the species is both beneficial and invasive, striking that balance for muskrats is important, Lorentz believes.
“Every species has an ecological role to play. All animals have inherent value, and the more we understand them, the more we come to appreciate them.”
