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The following pages have something to say about muskrats and are hosted at colleges or universities. Sometimes they are the work of students, sometimes the work of research or teaching staff.
Muskrat Description, food habits, reproduction, and habitat; Southern Illinois University-Carbondale Student Chapter Of The Wildlife Society
The Muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus) Description, distribution, habits, home, diet, predators, reproduction; from The Department of Biology, McMaster University
"Muskrat Environmental Impact Potential and Management" is discussed on the Wildlife page at WaterSHEDSS (Water, Soil, and Hydro-Environmental Decision Support System) from NCSU Water Quality Group, North Carolina State University, North Carolina Cooperative Extension, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering. What appears to be the same information is also at http://h2osparc.wq.ncsu.edu/descprob/wildlife.html.
Ondatra shows that muskrat inhabit the same latitudes in Europe and Asia as they do in North America. From here you can also figure out that Piisami is the Finnish word for "muskrat". Home page: Lepidoptera and other life forms.
Muskrat - Breeding range, habitat; Terrestrial Mammals of Maine, Maine Gap Analysis, Department of Wildlife Ecology, University of Maine
Late Winter on Staten Island - The Crepuscular Dance of the Muskrats - taxonomic classification, physical description, homes, diet, reproduction, ecology, and human uses for muskrat. From The Treehugger - Staten Island Through the Seasons, Catherine Lavender, PhD, Department of History, The College of Staten Island/City University of New York.
Le Bois de Lauzelle - Bornes 17, 18, 19 (borne 18, really) describes the muskrat as an unwanted inhabitant (in French). From Unité d'écologie et de biogéographie (ECOL), Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium.
Controlling Nuisance: Muskrats gives description, habitat, diet, breeding, and control via trapping and mechanical methods. From XPLOR - Extension Publications Library on Request, University of Missouri-Columbia Extension
| Kevin Campbell's Zoology Page lists a number of papers he has authored or co-authored (most with links to an abstract): | |
| · | "Nutrition and the energetic tactics of muskrats (Ondatra zibethicus): morphological and metabolic adjustments to seasonal changes in diet quality", |
| · | "Seasonal changes in water flux, forage intake, and assimilated energy of free-ranging muskrats", |
| · | "Urea recycling in muskrats (Ondatra zibethicus): a potential nitrogen-conserving tactic?", |
| · | "Digestibility of animal tissue by muskrats", |
| · | "Seasonal changes in gut mass, forage digestibility and nutrient selection of wild muskrats (Ondatra zibethicus)", |
| · | "Digestibility and assimilation of natural forage by muskrat", |
| · | "Heat increment of feeding and its thermoregulatory benefit in the muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus)", and |
| · | "Dependence on diving and the oxygen storage capacity of muskrats (Ondatra zibethicus)" |
| Campbell's web page is hosted at the Personal Homepage Server, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. | |
The Canadian Journal of Zoology has posted an abstract and link to a PDF copy of Campbell's article. See Nutrition and the energetic tactics of muskrats (Ondatra zibethicus): morphological and metabolic adjustments to seasonal shifts in diet quality. [I suspect you need to subscribe to see the PDF file of the article.]
Common Muskrat - Ondatra zibethicus - Physical characteristics, habitat, diet, reproductive characteristics, and more. From the Sevilleta Long-Term Ecological Research Program (LTER) at the University of New Mexico.
Ondatra zibethicus (Muskrat): Narrative (range, physical characteristics, food habits, reproduction, behavior, economic importance, range in Michigan, fossil records in Michigan) and Ondatra zibethicus (Muskrat): Media (anatomical images of skulls--stills and "spinning" videos that are viewable with Apple's QuickTime plug-in) are available from University of Michigan Museum of Zoology Department's The Animal Diversity Web.
Muskrat - Description, distribution & abundance, habitat, habits, foods, reproduction, conservation. Also has follow-on links to Additional Information and Photo (Muskrat) and Ecosystems and the muskrat. Also, Trivia tells us that the muskrat is the only member of the genus Ondatra that occurs in North America. From Ecology and Conservation of Illinois' Fur Resources, hosted on Illinois Natural History Survey WWW server.
Muskrat - A short discussion of habitat, physical description, homes, and diet. From Natural History Collections: Gallery, Institute of Cell, Animal & Population Biology (ICAPB), hosted on the Helios server, The University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
Muskrat - Habitat, diet, homes. From Catalog Index, Jurica Nature Museum. Hosted on the "cse" server of Benedictine University, Lisle, Illinois.
Controlling Muskrats - Identification, habitat, diet, reproduction, damage identification and damage prevention methods. From Natural Resources Program, Michigan State University Extension - Genesee County.
Common Muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus) - Description, distribution in Texas, habits, homes, diet, reproduction, predators. From The Mammals of Texas - Online Edition by William B. Davis and David J. Schmidly. Hosted on The Natural Science Research Laboratory server at Texas Tech University.
Muskrat - Distribution, habitat, natural history, conservation. From Riparian dependent species at Information Integration for Watershed Planning and Risk Assessment (hosted by University of Nevada, Reno).
Muskrat, Ondatra zibethicus - Description, distribution, reproduction, ecology (habitat, feeding, mortality), behaviour, sign, and vocalization. From Canada's Freshwater Mammals, Discover Canada's Aquatic Mammals, Mammals, Aquatic Animals, Canada's Aquatic Environments. Hosted at University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario.
FOR-51 Managing Muskrat Problems in Kentucky is an on-line publication available from Agricultural Communications Services, College of Agriculture, University of Kentucky. It describes muskrats' physical characteristics, range in Kentucky, habitat, diet, homes, reproduction, predators of, and lethal and non-lethal methods of controlling muskrats.
Muskrat gives taxonomic classification, behavior and a map showing distribution in the Chihuahan Desert area. From Mammals, Chihuahuan Desert Home Page hosted at NASA Network Resources Training Site at the University of Texas at El Paso.
"Ondatra zibethicus" describes the muskrat's habitat in Ohio, behavior, physical characteristics, dental formula, diet, reproduction and greatest natural enemy. On the page Rodentia from Mammals of Ohio, Mammals of Ohio and the World, Wittenberg University, Springfield, Ohio.
Muskrat gives a photograph and distribution in Canada, habitat, physical characteristics, behavior, homes, and diet. It mentions that muskrat can remain underwater for 17 minutes. Amazing! From Rodents, Mammals, Canada's Species, Canadian Biodiversity Web Site.
Lista Taxonómica de los Mamíferos Terrestres de México and Mamíferos Terrestres Nativos de México list muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus). From Colección Nacional de Mamíferos (CNMA) at Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
Estado de México, in Spanish, lists muskrat as fauna found in valleys and in the Depresión del Balsas in the Mexican state of Mexico. From Biografías de Personajes que intervinieron en la Revolución Mexicana, Círculos de aprendizaje. Hosted at RedEscolar, Instituto Latinoamericano de la Comunicación Educativa. From the same host, Santa Elena 3 lists muskrat among the fauna near Mount St. Helens. From Registro de Volcanes, Proyecto Volcanes.
Other links to muskrats living south of the Rio Grande, are found on my Biology - Adults' web pages and Biology - Government web pages.
The muskrat is described, in Estonian, at Ondatra - liigikirjeldus (including a picture) and Ondatra - täiendav info. Home page Eesti selgroogsed - esileht; English home page Estonian Vertebrates - the title page. (I find no English translation of the muskrat pages on the site.) The English home page says, "These educational WWW pages have been composed in the Science Didactics Department, University of Tartu, Estonia.
Chlamydophila from Dictionnaire de bactériologie vétérinaire (in French) describes a deadly infection by Chlamydophila psittaci of muskrat and hare in 1961 in Canada and "other areas like Wisconsin". Hosted at Serveurs WWW gérés ou hébergés par le CICT, Le Centre Interuniversitaire de Calcul de Toulouse.
Le pays des étangs - short physical description (in French) and photograph. From Le Ban sur Moselle, Collège "Les Hauts de Blémont", L'Académie de Nancy-Metz. (Le pays des étangs looks identical, but I don't find complete links to it).