Bisamratte Loiret

The muskrat inhabits almost any freshwater body with a stable water level, including lakes, ponds, rivers, ditches, and flooded lowlands, provided there is enough aquatic and bankside vegetation and the soft banks allow it to dig burrow systems. With a body length of around 35 centimetres, a roughly 25 centimetre, laterally flattened and almost hairless tail, and a weight of about 0.8 to 1.6 kilograms, it is clearly smaller than nutria and beaver. It is mainly crepuscular and nocturnal, an excellent swimmer and diver that can stay submerged for several minutes, and it feeds chiefly on aquatic and bank plants such as reeds, cattails, and water lilies.

The Central European population traces back to 1905, when Prince Colloredo-Mansfeld released a few animals near Prague. From there, with a high reproductive rate of up to three litters per year, the species spread in all directions and today occupies large parts of Eurasia. From a water-management perspective, the muskrat's extensive burrow systems cause damage to dams, dikes, and bank reinforcements; in protected areas it also contributes to the destruction of reed beds and aquatic plant stands, and it can put pressure on threatened freshwater mussel populations.

Population control in the German-speaking countries runs year round and is based, in line with the federal species-protection ordinance and EU Regulation 1143/2014, primarily on trapping, supplemented by shooting where this is permitted. Both live traps and quick-kill traps are used, and they must be designed and set so that unintended by-catch is largely excluded; live traps have to be checked at least morning and evening. For reliable identification, hunters should compare it to the two confusion species: nutria are clearly larger and carry a round, rope-like tail, while beavers are much heavier and have the broad, horizontally flattened paddle tail. The muskrat is recognised by its compact body and its narrow, vertically flattened rudder tail.