Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
2
The Misnamed One: The Muskrat
MYTHS
The muskrat is a close relative of the common, or Norway, rat.
It's a scaled-down version of the beaver.
It's called a muskrat because it's a kind of rat with a musky scent.
OUTSIDE ITS NORMAL AQUATIC SURROUNDINGS, THE MUSKRAT
(ONDATRA
ZIBETHICA) IS OFTEN MISIDENTIFIED AS A RAT, THAT IS, EITHER THE NORWAY OR
COMMON RAT
(RATTUS NORVEGICUS)
OR THE BLACK OR ROOF RAT
(RATTUS RATTUS).
On several occasions I've had someone tell me, with either a shudder or with loathing in the voice, “A
great, fat rat crossed the road in front of me. It was
huge,
just disgusting!” Or “I looked out my win-
dow, and there was the biggest rat I've ever seen coming up out of the water. It was awful!” After a few
inquiries about specifics of the animal in question—size, shape, color, and related characteristics—it
became clear that the creature being discussed wasn't the hated and feared Norway rat, but the very
distantly related and wholly innocuous muskrat.
Rats have earned their reputation as one of mankind's greatest scourges— destructive disease carri-
ers that have afflicted humans down through the centuries. After all, they were the primary carriers of
bubonic plague—the fearsome Black Death of the Middle Ages that decimated Europe—as well as a
major source of typhus. Further, their destruction of grain supplies and damage to many other things
of value to humans have made them even more feared and despised. Norway and black rats are also
immigrants from Europe and represent perhaps our most unfortunate importation of nonnative wildlife.
