Muskrat Encounter (Video & Facts!)

Today, I’m excited to share a video I took of a muskrat I came across at the Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma! It seems like March 27th is a lucky day for muskrat sightings, because this was exactly one year after my first encounter with one at the refuge (which you can read about here: [First-time Photographing A Muskrat]).

It was late morning on March 27, 2024, and I was making a final loop around the auto tour road before heading home. As I drove over the Sally Jones Causeway, I spotted a bunch of ducks on the south side of the road. But then, something else caught my eye in the water near the road. I drove past it at first, but curiosity got the better of me and I had to back up to take a closer look.

There it was – a muskrat perched on a log in the water, happily munching on some underwater plants. It was surprisingly close to the road, and thankfully, it didn’t seem bothered by my truck slowly reversing or me sticking my camera out the window.

This encounter brought back memories of another blog post I wrote about muskrats I saw at the Sequoyah Refuge the very next day after my first muskrat sighting last year (March 28, 2023). You can check that one out here: [Muskrats Steal The Show At Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge].

In those previous blog posts, I shared some interesting facts about muskrats, and here are a few more:

• Mostly Veggie-Lovers: Muskrats are herbivores, meaning their diet consists mainly of aquatic plants like cattails, water lilies, and pondweed. However, they won’t turn down a snack of small aquatic animals like snails, crayfish, or even frogs if the opportunity arises.
• Breeding Champs: Muskrats are quite prolific breeders. Females can have a whopping 2-3 litters per year, with each litter containing 6-8 young!
• Marsh Managers: Their feeding and burrowing activities help keep marshes healthy by creating open areas that provide valuable habitat for other water-dwelling creatures like waterfowl. On the other hand, muskrat populations can become so large that their burrowing activities can damage infrastructure like dikes and levees.

I hope you enjoyed this little encounter with a muskrat at the Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge! Be sure to check out the video and my previous blog posts for more information on these fascinating creatures.