Species
Ondatra
IUCN
NCBI
EOL Text
More info for the term: rhizome
A variety of animals use common muskrat lodges including snakes, turtles,
toads, Canada geese (Branta canadensis), and black terns (Childonias
niger) [14].
Common muskrats can reduce cattail enough to allow purple loosestrife (Lythrum
salicaria), an undesirable weed, to replace cattail and degrade marsh
quality [15].
Management of water levels can have a strong impact on common muskrat habitat
because of fluctuation influences on certain food species [14].
Drawdowns can have a negative impact on common muskrat populations [17]. Low
water levels may encourage undesirable species to take over. Prolonged
flooding can destroy food plants [14]. Water levels in Louisiana
coastal marshes strongly influence the distribution of Olney bulrush
[13]. Recommended water levels for these areas are between 0.5 to 2.0
inches (1.3-5.0 cm), and never less than 2.0 to 3.1 inches (5-8 cm)
below the substrate [13,14]. Recommended water levels for Maine are
between 6 and 20 inches (15-51 cm) [14]. For detailed information on
how water levels affect cattail refer to Weller [19]. For more detailed
information on general affect of water level refer to Perry [14].
Common muskrat populations tend to follow a roughly six- to 14-year cycle,
where low numbers leading to good food supplies are followed by a
population boom and a subsequent decline in common muskrat numbers [4,14]. In
Gulf coastal marshes these booms cause "eat-outs", which are areas of
extensive overharvest of Olney bulrush by common muskrats. This usually occurs
in pure Olney bulrush stands, and can have a detrimental impact on
stands. Bulrush must establish within 5 months after an "eat-out"
occurs or it will die out [16]. Regeneration can occur through
sprouting from rhizome fragments in the substrate. Prolonged flooding
can delay regeneration in "eat-out" areas. For more in-depth discussion
on management of Olney bulrush refer to Sipple [16].
In some areas mosquito control projects can destroy marshes, as can
dredging, diking, and urban sprawl [15].
Depth range based on 4 specimens in 1 taxon.
Environmental ranges
Depth range (m): 0 - 0
Note: this information has not been validated. Check this *note*. Your feedback is most welcome.
License | http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | Ocean Biogeographic Information System |
Source | http://www.iobis.org/mapper/?taxon_id=844198 |
Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) Stats
Specimen Records:3
Specimens with Sequences:2
Specimens with Barcodes:2
Species:1
Species With Barcodes:1
Public Records:1
Public Species:1
Public BINs:1
This species occurs in North America, from northern Canada and Alaska south through the United States, except the arid regions of the southwest and Texas, and the Florida peninsula. Introduced to Czech Republic in 1905 in order to establish fur farms, it is now present throughout the Palaearctic, Mongolia, China, northeast Korea, and Honshu Island, Japan. Also introduced in Argentina (Musser and Carleton, 2005).
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | © International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources |
Source | http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/15324 |
Common muskrats are distributed across North America from northern Alaska and
Canada south to parts of the Gulf Coast and northern portions of Mexico
[1]. They are found in northern and central California, parts of
southern Arizona, northern Utah and Nevada, most of New Mexico, the
Texas Panhandle, and eastern Texas, and a small part of western Texas
and the Louisiana coast. Common muskrats are not found in Florida or coastal
Georgia and South Carolina [14]. Ranges for each subspecies are given
below [14]:
1. O. z. zibethicus - eastern U.S. and southeastern Canada
2. O. z. albus - Manitoba and adjacent central Canada
3. O. z. aquilonius - Labrador and adjacent Ungava and Quebec
4. O. z. bernardi - Colorado River areas of southeastern California,
southern Nevada, and western Arizona and Mexico
5. O. z. cinnamominus - Great Plains
6. O. z. goldmani - southwestern Utah, northwestern Arizona, and
southeastern Nevada
7. O. z. macrodon - mid-Atlantic Coast
8. O. z. mergens - northern Nevada and parts of adjacent states
9. O. z. obscurus - Newfoundland
10. O. z. occipitalis - coastal Oregon and Washington
11. O. z. osoyoosensis - Rocky Mountains and southwestern Canada
12. O. z. pallidus - southcentral Arizona and west-central New Mexico
13. O. z. ripensis - southwestern Texas and southeastern New Mexico
14. O. z. rivalicius - southern Louisiana, Mississippi coast,
western Alabama, and eastern Texas
15. O. z. spatulatus - northwestern North America
16. O. z. zalophus - southern Alaska
More info on this topic.
This species can be found in the following regions of the western United States (according to the Bureau of Land Management classification of Physiographic Regions of the western United States):
1 Northern Pacific Border
2 Cascade Mountains
3 Southern Pacific Border
4 Sierra Mountains
5 Columbia Plateau
6 Upper Basin and Range
7 Lower Basin and Range
8 Northern Rocky Mountains
9 Middle Rocky Mountains
10 Wyoming Basin
11 Southern Rocky Mountains
12 Colorado Plateau
13 Rocky Mountain Piedmont
14 Great Plains
15 Black Hills Uplift
16 Upper Missouri Basin and Broken Lands
More info on this topic.
This species is known to occur in association with the following cover types (as classified by the Society of American Foresters):
16 Aspen
63 Cottonwood
108 Red maple
217 Aspen
235 Cottonwood - willow
Common muskrats eat the basal parts, rhizomes, and leaves of aquatic emergent
vegetation. Although they consume mostly plant material, they eat some
fish, crustaceans, dead birds, and frogs [14]. In Gulf coastal marshes,
Olney bulrush is an important food [16]. Plant food species vary with
common muskrat distribution, but some of the major foods are cattail, bulrush,
sedge, arrowhead (Sagittaria spp.), waterlily (Nymphaea spp.), wild rice
(Zizania aquatica), sweetflag (Acorus calamus), pondweed (Potamogeton
spp.), pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata), spikerush (Eleocharis spp.),
smartweed (Polygonum spp.), clover (Trifolium spp.), bluestem
(Andropogon spp.), rice (Oryza spp.), panicgrass (Panicum spp.),
paspalum (Paspalum spp.), burreed (Sparganium spp.), millet (Echinochloa
spp.), willow (Salix spp.), poplar (Populus spp.), and some crops. They
also consume acorns and maple (Acer spp.) samaras [1,14,16].