Habitat: Sloughs, lakes, marshes, and streams.  They prefer areas with rushes, and open water.

Description: Long, shiny, tawny or black hairs that overly a brownish grey coat.  They also have a long black tail, that is almost hairless.  They have short legs, and their back feet are partially webbed.

Size: 46-62cm long, 0.8-1.6kg

Diet: Submerged vegetation in the winter, and in the summer, cattails, rushes, sedges, irises, water lilies, pondweeds, snails, frogs, and fish.

Fun Facts: They produce a distinct musk-like smell during breeding season, which is why its name the muskrat.

Source: Pattie, D. and C. Fisher. 1999. Mammals of Alberta. Lone Pine Publishing.