What is this creature??Muskrat??

Our canine queen of destruction had a huge furry creature she'd caught this morning. I sent my son back outside to remove it from her and put it in barn until it could be dealt with. At first I thought it was an absolutely huge rat but after research I'm thinking it's a muskrat. I have seen a very large black creature scurrying away in my greenhouse where my ducks are located at night so I figured it had been helping itself to my feed but had never really seen anything but a large blur. We have no water anywhere at all near us except the drainage ditch along the road and the lagoon out in the back field. Anyways, thought I'd see if anyone could help us identify what this creature is
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

looks like it has webbed feet?
maybe a muskrat.
I think rats have feet like a mouse

Right you are, Serjay. Muskrats are really common where I live, and now is the time of year they start to migrate to new water areas. I actually think they are kinda cute.

It's weird because we are a long long way from any real water source but maybe with the crazy wet summer we had it travelled down in the drainage ditch? I don't know what it is really but seems too big to be a rat???

Smell it! Muskrats and Packrats stink! I do not know if they are different, but often heard my dad speak of them as if they were. One lives in/near water, the other more land based. I think Muskrats have furry tails. Could be wrong. If you have found objects mysteriously missing, and other odd objects left in their place...Packrats. They like to do tradesies.

I couldn't smell anything and we were pretty close when taking pics and looking at it this evening but then our Newfoundland caught it and was licking and loving it all up this morning when my son found her with it (gag!) Anything gross and smelly is fantastic to her blech! We've watched her swallow whole mice but this was too big for even her mouth and she REALLY wanted it back.
I'm glad I won't be feeding it this winter anyways and I'm glad it will no longer be making it's home in my garden and greenhouse with my waterfowl. Should we worry that there are more of them?

That would be a Muskrat ! Most likly looking for another sourse of food and water .They will be around ditch's as long as the water levels stay , but when it's to low or gone then they move ...so most likly it found itself in your area and your dog found it and that took care of that .They prefer cattails and water weeds to survive and will burrow into the sides of dikes , ditch's or if there is enough water and cattails they will build a house somewhat like a beaver

Hmm so you don't think this is the critter we've seen scurrying away from our duck feed all summer? So we could still have a rat we're feeding? Our greenhouse is about 100ft from the drainage ditch that runs along the road but the ditch has been completely dry the last few weeks. It is about 4-5ft deep and has a few bushes we clean out in fall and timothy and weeds about 7-8ft tall right now. Everyone in the area has a sewage lagoon but ours is out behind the barn and it does have cattails etc so maybe it was out back and she brought it back to the house to lick and snuggle it (BLECH!)

Muskrats don't eat feed so I guess you might be feeding something else , although I have had rats , I now have chipmunks ? and they seem to like the chicken feed ?

Ah darn that's not good news. Here I was celebrating Cocoa finally being helpful in her destruction and instead it was just a poor harmless creature in the wrong place at the wrong time. Too bad

What others have said is correct. it's a muskrat and ditches or small ponds are fine for them to survive.

But here is something I didn't know;

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]


Near farmland, muskrats may eat corn or other crops if aquatic plants are not available.

So, if you don't have a lot of its preferred aquatic plants around, maybe it is eating your feed.

When we were kids, we had a muskrat that lived in our pond. It got so it wasn't very afraid of us. We would go and sit on the dock to watch it and it would go about it's business. One day, our neighbors brought their dog down with them when they were visiting. Us kids went to watch the muskrat. Suddenly the dog (a big one), launched it's self off the end of the dock, and literally dove under the water, caught the muskrat and killed it in front of all us kids. We were horrified. I didn't know dogs could dive.

Another time, our dogs cornered one, and my dad caught it and put it in a cage so us kids could see one close up. The muskrat was snapping it's teeth loudly at us. He stuck a fair sized stick through the bars, and it bit the stick off like nothing. Lesson was, Never ever, just because they are cute, touch one. You could loose a finger like that!

Thanks for showing us the muskrat.

I was going to joke and say it was a mountain beaver (My husband and I argue over their existence), I swear I seen one once. lol

silkiebantam wrote:

I was going to joke and say it was a mountain beaver (My husband and I argue over their existence), I swear I seen one once. lol

They exist. Lots of pictures and info on the internet.

Fowler wrote:

silkiebantam wrote:

I was going to joke and say it was a mountain beaver (My husband and I argue over their existence), I swear I seen one once. lol

They exist. Lots of pictures and info on the internet.

Yes, I have looked it up, and tried to show him to prove my point. (I love the internet for this.) Unfortuately, he is a stubborn, stubborn man, who can never addmit he is wrong.

Ahhhh, well, I know what I seen, and that's what really matters. I just wish I had, had my camera!

Well, I guess I will have to continue to look for any other rat like creatures in my greenhouse. If there is then either this one had a buddy or Cocoa didn't get my feed eater. Those are some wicked looking teeth on the little critter! I wouldn't be sticking my finger too close to one

This whole area is nothing but clay and no one grows anything but hay. We're weird city folk from down south that actually have animals and gardens on our property!! We have a small raised bed garden with potatoes and carrots but thats it we've noticed no damage to them but each little bed is fenced to keep my waterfowl out and from being able to reach the plants. Everyone here has sewage lagoons but they aren't terribly big because most were put in before new regulations and all our neighbours have well fenced lagoons. The thought of Cocoa finding a way into that lagoon gives me nightmares UCK! We did have a large snowfall this year followed by a lot of rain so we can see water in the lagoon but I wouldn't think it'd be a place for a muskrat (or anything) to choose to live (thick green algae but mostly cattails). There's nothing but open fields around here and the few empty lots are filled with not much else but poplar trees and shrubs. It seems really weird to me that it would be a muskrat but it seems it is. Well, I learned something new and had an up close look at a muskrat

I think if Cocoa hadn't gotten it that muskrat would have had a very long hard winter because that ditch won't being filling up again until spring and it would be a long walk with lots of coyotes and fox around here. The red-tailed hawks have shown up again and so my sons chickens have been locked up the last few days as they circle the fields cleaning up the mice. My new waterfowl pen should be finished soon so they'll be moving. Thanx for the info everyone

Oh I now what you mean Silkiebantam I've been telling my hubby all summer that there is a huge black rat eating my duck feed and scurrying into the front corner before I could get a look at it. He just rolled his eyes and told me it was just mice! Even my eldest said he'd seen something but it was fast and only seen the dark blur and long tail disappear. Yesterday I told hubby Cocoa had caught a huge furry rat like creature and he gave me the sure sure dear voice over the fact that I said it was huge

I have a family of chipmunks that have moved in under the coop and the first few times that I saw it it was just a blurr , thought of the other furry creature as well untill i caught it in the coop !So far they are all alive , must be building up there winter food supply with the feed