One of the first mammals of which I was familiar was the muskrat (Ondatra zebethicus), mostly because I grew up along Tar Run in East Weissport.

This nature nerd was certainly aware of white-tailed deer, cottontail rabbits and gray squirrels because I tagged along with Dad. But with the stream in my backyard, I was either fishing for creek chubs, catching frogs, watching the tadpoles feed and mature or I would sneak down on some evenings to watch the muskrats leave their dens to munch on the grasses along the banks.

Muskrats are rodents, semiaquatic, and up to 24 inches long. Half of that length, though, is their tail. The tail is flattened vertically, just the opposite of a beaver’s tail (flattened laterally.) Their tail is nearly hairless and serves as a rudder, helps propel them in the water and acts as a stiff prop while they gnaw on cattails. Cattails are a staple, along with stream-side vegetation, and if your garden is close to their home, your veggies.

They can occasionally eat crayfish or some stream invertebrates, but they are basically herbivores.

Muskrats prefer ponds, marshes or slow-moving streams. In ponds with cattails, they’ll fashion lodges from them and mud, with an underwater entrance. A cavity inside the lodge is above the water level, and there they can seek safety or raise their young.

Often in ponds, or along Tar Run, they’ll excavate burrows in the stream bank and pond shores. The entrance is underwater, and the denning cavity is above the water level. Folks who have constructed backyard ponds or farmers with ponds for their livestock do not welcome muskrats because their excavations can breach the pond’s banks.

I’m again aging myself, but the singing duo Captain & Tennille sang the song “Muskrat Love” in 1976. They referred to Muskrat Suzie and Muskrat Sam, a bit of the lyrics are: “And they whirl and they twirl and they tangle, singin’ and jinglin’ a jangle,” float like the heavens above …”

The lyrics are quite accurate. The males leave their musk, hence the name muskrat, to attract the females. Seldom heard except in mating times, you can hear their quiet calls, and watch their synchronized swimming pre-mating routine, much as the song describes.

I did see a pair swimming in tandem as a youngster, now realizing it was their courting ritual. Males do help with raising the young, with usually three litters of four or five each summer.

Muskrats do not hibernate but venture from the dens, often under the ice, to eat the underwater tubers and stems of cattails. They are mostly nocturnal, mainly because they are not fleet of foot, and foxes, hawks, coyotes and mink (a common predator of muskrats) will seek them out.

Young muskrats get booted from the lodge/den shortly after being weaned, and they can even fall prey to snapping turtles. Muskrat lifespans are not much longer than a year.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission, and agencies in other states, are all reporting drastic drops in muskrat populations. Various possible causes are: continued loss of aquatic habitats; water contamination from pesticides, herbicides and insecticides; viruses; an increase in the coyote population; and increased flash flooding caused by increased runoffs in severe storms. The flooding drowns the young in their stream-bank dens.

Most of the researchers are at a loss to pinpoint what really has caused the population to drop so much in the last 50 years. I know that in my lifetime it is getting harder to find muskrats and their lodges.

If you are at a pond in the Times News area, look for the telltale muddy openings along the shore or their rather large cattail mounded lodges. But, of course, to see them, you need to get out there ...

Test Your Outdoor Knowledge: Young muskrats are called: A. musketeers; B. pups; C. kits; D. cubs.

Last Week’s Trivia Answer: Our state insect is the firefly. I noticed the first fireflies in my backyard on June 16, which I thought was a very early date.

Email Barry Reed at breed71@gmail.com