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A muskrat caught in a fence at the Portage/Baseline Lake Wastewater Treatment Plant was set free with the help of students of Kathy Spiess's fourth grade class at Mitchell Elementary School. The students were on the Ann Arbor Public Schools Water Tour, led by AAPS environmental educator Dave Szczygiel. Szczygiel leads about 400 field trips each school year.
Courtesy Dave Szczygiel, Ann Arbor Public Schools
A fourth grade class from Mitchell Elementary School on the Ann Arbor Public Schools Water Tour of the Portage/Baseline Lake Wastewater Treatment Plant got an unexpected education in the adaption of aquatic mammals to urbanization on Tuesday. An unfortunate muskrat was heading to its home in one of the water treatment lagoons when it got stuck in a cyclone fence.Â
Dave Szczygiel of the AAPS Environmental Education program led the field trip, which is part of a program that takes all students in grades K-6 on outdoors trips throughout the year. (Good news: The muskrat is OK now.)
The fence was cut open so the muskrat could escape. He scampered off and could not be reached for comment.
Habitat
Muskrats are aquatic mammals. They don't hibernate, but they do build mounds in marshy wetlands along the Huron River and in other watery areas to help them overwinter. Good locations for muskrat spotting are easily seen by canoe along the Huron River, and city parks like Swift Run Marsh and Furstenburg Nature Area have good muskrat populations.
Muskrats in literature
The juvenile literature of the muskrat is not extensive. Cork & Fuzz: Short and Tall by Dori Chaconas tells the story of the friendship between Cork, a muskrat, and Fuzz, a possum; Cork decides that since he is older, he has to be taller than Fuzz.
Muskrat science
The University of Michigan's Animal Diversity Web has a profile of Ondatra zibethicus, the muskrat. "Muskrats are widespread and abundant. Populations remain stable even when they are being hunted for fur, affected by disease, or a target for large predator populations because muskrats have the ability to reproduce quickly."
Muskrat love
"Every time I sing this song, I think of Henry Kissinger," says Toni Tennille in the introduction to this song. If your cultural reference points don't include this version of Muskrat Love, written by Willis Alan Ramsey and performed by the Captain and Tennille, well, all I can say is you're missing something.
Muskrat cuisine
The fall 2004 edition of Repast, the journal of the Culinary Historians of Ann Arbor, features stories and recipes of the muskrat. The tradition of eating muskrat during the season of Lent originates in Monroe County. The story, as recounted by Laurie K. Schulz of Monroe, in a story "Muskrat and the early French settlers", notes that the winter of 1813 was tough for the Reau families who were driven from their homes in the aftermath of the Battle of the River Raisin. They settled on Guard Island in Maumee Bay. "When Father Gabriel Richard found them huddled together there in some native huts, they were starving and asked for dispensation to eat muskrat on Friday. Father Richard granted their wish."
When consumed as meat the muskrats are pronounced as "mushrat"; the Monroe Yacht Club's essay How the muskrat became a fish preserves the legend.
Edward Vielmetti writes about town fauna for AnnArbor.com . Contact him at 734-330-2465.
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