Family-Outdoors

May is American Wetlands Month – a month to appreciate and enjoy the wonders of wetlands!  Take some time to experience this amazing native ecosystem by visiting one of Michigan’s Wetland Wonders . There, you may find one of Michigan’s most fascinating aquatic mammals – the muskrat.  Muskrats are a rich brown color and are roughly 18-25 inches long from the tip of their nose to the end of their hairless, round, brown tails. They weigh about 2-3 pounds and have partially webbed hind feet to help them swim in the marshes, lakes, ponds and slow-moving streams they inhabit.    Plants are the primary food source for muskrats, including the roots and stems of aquatic plants like cattails, arrowhead, waterlily and rushes. Muskrats will also sometimes eat meat, including fish, crayfish, mussels, turtles and frogs. Muskrats usually feed within 50 to 500 feet of their den.  Muskrats build dens, with one or more underwater entrances, in the sides of elevated banks...

Iowa fur harvesters will find good numbers of raccoons, coyotes, bobcats, river otters, mink, and, with all likelihood, other trappers in the countryside when the furbearer trapping and hunting season opens on Nov. 2. “Population-wise, all species are doing quite well except for muskrats and gray fox,” said Vince Evelsizer, furbearer biologist for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.  “Trappers who typically pursue muskrats could do well this year if they switch to coyotes and raccoons, and to some extent mink or red fox.” Muskrats are a bread-and-butter species for Iowa trappers, but the population took a significant hit last year after the drought left many Iowa wetlands dry heading in to winter. This year, wetlands are in better shape but the muskrats are not there. “It will take a few years for the population to come back,” Evelsizer said. What has come back and in a big way is the number of fur harvesters. The number of fur harvesters varies with the fur market a...