How to Track Muskrats

Video Transcript

"Hi we’re Nick and Valerie Wisniewski on behalf of Expert Village.com. We would like to tell you a little bit about musk rat tracks and if you are interested in more information, you can check our website at www.walnuthilltracking.com. Musk rat is a member of the rodent order and it is a very acquatic animal but it does come ashore occasionally. When it does its tracks are very interesting because there is a big difference between the front foot and the hind foot in terms of size. The hind foot is enormous compared to the front foot and often times it looks like a completely different animal left the track. The front foot only has 4 toes with a vestigial thumb that often times does not even show up at all; perhaps as a little dot. The hind foot has 5 toes. Sometimes either the front or the back or both of them will almost look like bird tracks because all you will see are the 3 toes in the middle which looks like a bird track. On the ground, the pattern that it leaves is what is called a classic under step walk. The front foot touches the ground and then the hind foot on the same side does not step quite as far as the front foot. The animal takes very short steps almost waddling along if you will. What you have left on the ground is a very boxy looking pattern. The trail is usually almost as wide as it is long; somewhere around 4 inches wide and steps are usually about 4 inches long give or take an inch in either direction. "