I live on tens of acres of wetlands. Two 1/4acre ponds, front is a marsh.
The muskrat damage constructed pond shores, but what they create is a low maybe 1 foot deep shoulder where their holes erode dirt onto the pond slope, which is excellent for wildlife. Its the area herons stalk for prey and fish breed. In my case my ponds are very secure with mud banks, so not being worried about leaks I decided to leave the muskrat. They are very cute. That was a few years back.
One spring I found 3-4 bodies washed up, possibly from Tularemia. More moved back in, and the spring we went from 2 to 6 individuals, and all the plants started to disappear. The reading I did said muskrat are very much a meta-population like the article mentions. In absence of predators, they will eat a place bare until it can no longer feed them and then migrate.
Close to the house I've now adopted a slow reduction with a rifle (non-lead rounds) to offset my imbalance of protecting them from predators. The pond shore damage hasn't stopped so they're still there but it has slowed enough to have time to get out with a wheelbarrow and fix the holes. Plants are doing fine.
In a similar balance I shot a pair of extremely large snapping turtles two years ago after learning large snappers have no predators, and we now have a new population of tiny turtles (~4 different species so far). I'm never happy to kill anything, but hopefully in these two cases I'm performing my steward role adequately.
We had a family of muskrat come live in our pond a number of years ago. It took a while to realize they were there: "wtf is that thing swimming around in the pond that's not a duck or a bear?" They dug a pretty serious hole in the bank that was risking draining the pond. Haven't seen one since though.
The muskrat damage constructed pond shores, but what they create is a low maybe 1 foot deep shoulder where their holes erode dirt onto the pond slope, which is excellent for wildlife. Its the area herons stalk for prey and fish breed. In my case my ponds are very secure with mud banks, so not being worried about leaks I decided to leave the muskrat. They are very cute. That was a few years back.
One spring I found 3-4 bodies washed up, possibly from Tularemia. More moved back in, and the spring we went from 2 to 6 individuals, and all the plants started to disappear. The reading I did said muskrat are very much a meta-population like the article mentions. In absence of predators, they will eat a place bare until it can no longer feed them and then migrate.
Close to the house I've now adopted a slow reduction with a rifle (non-lead rounds) to offset my imbalance of protecting them from predators. The pond shore damage hasn't stopped so they're still there but it has slowed enough to have time to get out with a wheelbarrow and fix the holes. Plants are doing fine.
In a similar balance I shot a pair of extremely large snapping turtles two years ago after learning large snappers have no predators, and we now have a new population of tiny turtles (~4 different species so far). I'm never happy to kill anything, but hopefully in these two cases I'm performing my steward role adequately.