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to dikes and small earthen dams, making them unwelcome residents in some situations.
    A muskrat house is much less strong and elaborate than a beaver lodge. These little domed structures are made in autumn by heaping up a mixture of reeds and mud. The muskrat then burrows up into the mass from below the waterline, excavates a chamber, and digs out additional tunnels for escape routes beneath the water.
    Next the muskrat erects several smaller, ancillary structures within a few yards of the main lodge. These little affairs, called
pushups,
enable the muskrat to extend its feeding range when the marsh or pond is icebound. In late fall or winter, after the marsh vegetation has died down, these houses and pushups can be seen dotting large marshes, protruding above the water or ice.
    Muskrats even manage to find housing in large swamps that lack banks for burrowing and cattails or similar vegetation for constructing houses. In that event, a muskrat will utilize a hollow log or stump, proving once again how adaptable a creature it is.
    Muskrats are an extremely important component of many wetlands. Where they’re abundant, they consume an enormous amount of aquatic vegetation, particularly emergent species such as cattails. Without these industrious little harvesters, many wetlands would have almost no open areas, because cattails and similar plants would soon choke out most of the open spaces. Indeed, the percentage of open water in a marsh is often highly dependent on the muskrat population.
    This propensity for creating openings in wetlands makes the muskrat extremely valuable to other species. Without open areas, ducks, geese, herons, egrets, and numerous other birds would derive little benefit from marshes, shallow ponds, and similar wet areas. Moreover, areas of open water create places for a variety of submerged aquatic plants to grow, thereby contributing greatly to the wetland’s diversity.
    Unlike beavers, muskrats seem to have little territorial instinct except in connection with their actual homes. This trait makes excellent evolutionary sense when one thinks about it: if muskrats were as fiercely territorial as beavers, they would be in constant conflict, and it would be very difficult for large numbers of them to coexist in the same marsh.
    Muskrats remain active throughout the year, even when winter closes like a giant vise on pond and marsh. Mostly they remain under the ice, foraging for a variety of foods while using their living quarters and any pushups they may have built as feeding spots. Several muskrats frequently share the same winter quarters, particularly in their domed houses of mud and reeds. Evidently this communal arrangement serves two important purposes: first, it keeps the interior of the house relatively warm; and, second, the warmth helps to keep the water from freezing in the interior entrances to their underwater exits.
    Although muskrats normally don’t attempt forays above the ice, they may sally forth if they run short of edibles, as sometimes happens in small wetland areas. Then they’ll leave the water and travel overland, even in the dead of winter, to seek another food source. Also, the need to find a mate may cause lone muskrats to leave their winter quarters in late February or March and set out on a cross-country journey. At such times they may turn up in odd places, such as garages, or may be killed while crossing highways.
    Heidi, our black Labrador retriever, and I once had a painful adventure with one of these winter wanderers. I happened to glance idly out the window one afternoon when the snow lay deep on the field adjoining the house. A distant movement caught my eye, and I spied a brown object moving in our direction. As it drew closer, the object soon resolved itself into a muskrat.
    Intrigued by such an incongruous sight, I took Heidi and went outdoors for a closer look. The muskrat continued to move steadily in our direction until it was perhaps twenty feet away. Then,