_____________________________________________________ Russian word starting with the letter "x". “The muskrat, or crest, is an aquatic animal, between an otter or a mink and a rat, Sorex moschatus; the nose is a trunk, the tail is scaly, smells strongly of musk. Muskrat, muskrat, muskrat - belonging to her, peculiar to her, or made from her skin. Khokhulya, from muskrat - smelly, odorous; or from hahal – red tape, funny dandy, over-scented.” (Dahl's Dictionary) Actually Russian word, a modification of the original name “muskrat”, formed by the prefix “you” from “hukholya” with the same meaning. The word “khukholya” is formed from the unpreserved verb “huhat” (“to stink”), related to Czech. chuchati – to blow, German. hauchen - to smell. The animal is named for its characteristic smell. The word “muskrat” in modern Russian is bigender, that is, it can be declined both as a feminine noun (like moth) and as a masculine noun (like tulle). Vladimir Vysotsky has a feminine muskrat: “The Tsar will give you a fur coat from his shoulder - From a natural muskrat,” Vasily Aksenov has a masculine muskrat: “...jeans with piping made from muskrat fur.” _____________________________________________________ Before you go looking for Russian muskrats, I, being a biologist by training, spent many months studying the scientific literature and passionately questioned the scientists I knew. Armed with a solid theory, I walked through many remote and forgotten places(once even imperceptibly violating state border), but at best he found only abandoned holes. The only conclusion I made after a year-long expedition is that the state of the muskrat population is deplorable.

Preserved almost unchanged for tens of millions of years, the Russian muskrat is a contemporary of the mammoth.

The muskrat is notable for the fact that it is the only animal whose scientific name contains the word “Russian”, and it is truly a real Russian. Her Latin name desmana comes from the Swedish word desmansrattle– musk rat, muskrat. The paradox is that, having an ancient, bizarre and easy-to-remember Slavic name “muskrat”, this animal remains a stranger to many - few can tell offhand whether it is a mammal or a bird. I cannot remember without a smile the reaction of an elderly fisherman who, having lived all his life in an area where there are quite a lot of muskrats, was dumbfounded and recoiled when he first saw this animal - “a mere rat with a fish tail, membranes and long hair all over the body." But for many years this fisherman spent every summer near the lakes and cast his fishing rod “over the heads” of muskrats, who modestly whiled away their lives in inconspicuous holes in the very lakes where he fished. What a fisherman! Some aspects of the life of this primitive and very peculiar animal still give rise to a lot of controversy among scientists. Contemporary of mammoths. Preserved almost unchanged for 30 or, according to other sources, 40 million years, the Russian muskrat is a contemporary of the mammoth. The found remains of these animals, dating back to the Pleistocene period, helped to identify them ancient territory habitat stretching from the Caspian Sea to Britain - across all of Europe. Today everything is much more modest: the population of Russian muskrats numbers 30,000 individuals - half as much as even 30 years ago. There are very few areas left where the number of muskrats, although low, is at least stable. These are the areas of Ryazan (6,000 muskrats), Kursk (3,500) and Kurgan (2,000). Relative to the territories of these regions, each of which is approximately the size of England, muskrats are indeed very rare and rather chaotically scattered. Even observing them on these vast lands is almost impossible, let alone protecting them. One thing is clear: populations of Russian muskrats are currently fragmented and limited to the basins of some tributaries of the Don, Ural and Volga. The Prioksky Nature Reserve is a rare place where the muskrat lives in relative safety. It occupies an area along the Oka River about 300 kilometers southeast of Moscow. This part of the Oka floodplain is regularly patrolled by foresters, making it a reliable refuge for almost a thousand animals. Russian muskrats have been studied here for more than 50 years, and in the last 30 years this work has been taken over by the spouses Alexander and Maria Onufrenya, biologists who came to work in the reserve from Moscow. Many photographs and articles about the Russian muskrat were prepared in the Prioksky Nature Reserve with their active participation. Stigma into the cannon. Detecting a muskrat is incredibly difficult. She leaves almost no traces because she avoids walking on dry ground. It is also impossible to find the excrement of these animals - they simply do not exist, since muskrats relieve themselves in water, and their feces resemble clots of green liquid clay. Although outwardly the animal resembles a water rat, and often lives in the same places, the Russian muskrat is easy to distinguish by its habits, size and characteristic trunk-shaped snout. Muskrat - quite large animal compared to their miniature relatives - shrews and even closer relatives - moles. The length of its body is about 20 centimeters, its tail is about the same length, its weight is 400–520 grams. Although it is often defined as a semi-aquatic animal, the muskrat is well adapted to living in aquatic environment. On land, her body becomes flabby, and she herself becomes clumsy. But, once again in the water, the muskrat turns into a skilled swimmer, vigorously moving forward with the help of a long tail and hind legs with well-developed membranes. Its front legs are smaller and only partially webbed; its soles are framed with thick and stiff hairs, which is convenient for swimming. The limbs are also equipped with large, long and sharp claws, which serve as digging tools. The beady eyes are so small that they would not be visible at all if not for the white spots around them, which gives the animal a characteristic low-blind appearance. Possessing rudimentary vision, the muskrat, both underwater and on land, relies on its organs of touch (Eimer's organs) at the tip of the stigma. The constantly moving, very flexible elongated two-lobed stigma is undoubtedly the brightest distinguishing feature muskrats. The muzzle is dotted with hollows at the top and bottom, at the tip there are two nostrils, and it can serve as both a breathing tube and a tactile receptor. In addition, the stigma is covered with very long sensitive hairs - vibrissae. Despite the absence of ears, the muskrat’s hearing is quite good, although peculiar: it does not pay any attention to people’s conversations, but shudders at the quietest splash of water, the slightest rustle in dry grass, the crunch of a twig under a person’s foot or an animal’s paw. Externally, the auditory tube opens as a slit in the skin, framed by hairs, measuring less than one centimeter. When a muskrat is immersed in water, its ears and nostrils are closed using special valves. Odor enhancer. A striking contrast to the fur-covered, fluffy body is the flattened, scaly tail with a stripe of coarse hairs along the upper edge and sensitive hairs sparsely protruding between the rings of scales. The tail is narrow at first, then widens into a pear-shaped base with musk glands. If you squeeze them lightly, the glands secrete an oily substance that smells strongly of musk - this smell cannot be confused with anything else. It is so pungent that hunting dogs that occasionally kill muskrats cannot eat them. It is also known that earlier, when in European Russia muskrats were found in abundance, the cattle refused to drink from the lakes where they lived, as the water smelled of their burrows. The oily musky substance serves several purposes: it helps make the skin waterproof, and the animal, tidying itself up, diligently transfers it from the tail to the fur. A pungent odor is also needed to mark territory: to scare off other muskrats and make it easier to navigate muddy water floodplain lakes partially overgrown with algae. There is an assumption that the musky smell of muskrats lures various small aquatic creatures into the underwater trenches they build in order to eat their prey in relative safety. Unfortunately, it was precisely because of musk that in medieval Russia, right up to early XIX For centuries, muskrats have been hunted. Dried and musky-smelling muskrat tails were placed in chests of drawers with linen as a moth repellent. Later, musk oil was used as a scent enhancer in the manufacture of perfumes and colognes. But for real evil fate For a muskrat, its fur became thick, smooth and silky - chestnut-brown on the back and silver on the belly. Fur float. The muskrat's fur does not allow it to stay under water for a long time - it needs to be constantly and diligently looked after. The soft coat consists of a short, dense undercoat interspersed with long, coarse, very sensitive guard hairs. It has been noticed that wet fur is sure sign that the animal is unhealthy. Indeed, you will never see a “wet” muskrat. This phenomenon can be explained very simply: the fur skin retains numerous microscopic air bubbles in the water, so that the fur remains almost dry. Gradually this air comes out, and the muskrat must get out of the water in order to Once again take good care of your wonderful fur coat. There is another disadvantage of such a saturation of the fur with air - it is unsurpassed buoyancy, due to which the muskrat has to row incredibly vigorously underwater on the way to the hole and back. If she stops rowing, she will jump out of the water like a float.

When female muskrats leave the burrow, they cover their babies with a blanket of plants.

Since the beginning of the 19th century, it became fashionable to decorate clothes with muskrat fur, and it quickly became expensive - from 50 kopecks to one silver ruble per skin. The demand for it was very high: in 1836 alone, 100,000 skins were sold at the largest Nizhny Novgorod fair in Russia; from 1817 to 1819, 325,500 skins were exported to China. All this led to quite predictable results: to end of the 19th century century, the number of muskrats in Russia fell sharply. Ideal parents. Muskrats build burrows ranging from one to ten meters in length and tunnels that spiral upward from the entrance to the nest, which is always under water. A typical muskrat litter consists of three to five cubs; females can give birth twice a year, in spring and autumn. Newborn muskrats weigh only two to three grams. When females leave a hole, they cover their babies with a blanket of plants, and if the hole becomes unusable, they drag them on their backs to another. After a month, the female stops feeding the cubs milk, switching them to natural food, and after four to five months (some researchers believe that after eight) the babies become independent. In the absence of the mother, the father remains with the children. At eleven months, young individuals reach reproductive age. The lifespan of muskrats is unknown, but in captivity they live up to five years. Beaver friends. Other still unclear aspects of muskrat behavior include the mystery of their relationship with beavers. They appear to be favorable for muskrats because both species peacefully share the habitat. Large beavers annoy fishermen and poachers who cannot place a stationary fishing net near their homes - and this is very useful for muskrats. In addition, muskrats use beaver burrows, trenches, and structures to hide and travel safely between their burrows. In turn, muskrats eat mollusks, which are intermediate hosts helminths dangerous for beavers. The relationship between these animals is clearly marked by mutual respect - there is a known case when a muskrat climbed onto the back of a resting beaver, and it calmly endured such a demarche. I'm completely confused. By 1957, muskrats had become so difficult to spot that hunting them was finally banned. But this measure was already belated. The final blow to the muskrat was dealt by the spread of fishing with nets (using fixed seines, in particular) and electric fishing rods. Unlike beavers and muskrats, the muskrat is completely unable to escape from the net. Trapped in an underwater trap, she quickly weakens and suffocates. In Soviet Russia, net fishing was considered poaching, but after the collapse of the USSR, in 1996, it was allowed. The availability and low cost of Chinese nylon nets have turned small-scale fishing in Russia into uncontrolled poaching. Today, even in the European part of the country there is no control over fishing. People easily leave nets in the water: a ten-meter net costs only 100 rubles. But one such net left on a lake is enough to kill the entire local family of muskrats in just a few days. There are other reasons that led to the disappearance of the muskrat as a species. These include, among other things, competition for habitat with successfully introduced muskrats, water pollution and livestock farming, although these factors, even taken together, are much less harmful than net fishing.

The Russian muskrat is a relict mammal from the mole family, which lives mainly in some areas of Eurasia. This animal today lives in the basins of the Don, Dnieper, Ural and Volga, in Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Russia, and Ukraine. There is only one subspecies of this animal left in Europe - the Pyrenean muskrat, which lives along the mountains of the same name on the border of France and Spain, as well as in the mountainous regions of central Portugal. Both subspecies are included in the order of insectivores.

The Russian muskrat is a relict mammal from the mole family, which lives mainly in some areas of Eurasia

Description of appearance

The muskrat looks like a small animal whose body is covered with shiny fur. Depending on the subspecies maximum dimensions bodies range from 11 (Pyrenean desman) to 22 cm (Russian type). The weight of the European subspecies reaches 80 g, while the Russian subspecies weighs close to 0.52 kg.

The Iberian desman has a tail about 16 cm long, and in Russian specimens it equal to length bodies. The tail itself is covered with scales of keratinized tissue, and on top of it grow hairs that form a keel. At the base, the animal’s tail has the largest diameter, and at its extension there are odorous glands similar to pears. The oily liquid is squeezed out of them through holes located in the lower part of the tail.

The animal has a movable proboscis, and its entire body is covered with long, sensitive hairs - vibrissae.

Features of the animal Russian muskrat (video)

The animal's limbs are short and have 5 fingers. The front feet are narrower than the hind feet. A membrane for swimming is stretched between the fingers. The animal has long claws that are slightly curved. Along the edges of the animal's paws there are hard, bristly hairs that increase the surface of the limbs, which helps the animal to swim well.

The muskrat, or khokhulya, is a relict species of animals living mainly in Russia. Since 1986, the Russian muskrat has been included in the Red Book. The muskrat is a contemporary of the mammoth, one might say, a relict animal, an endemic. In ancient times, it lived virtually throughout Europe, but now its natural range is limited to the basins of the Dnieper, Don, Volga, and Ural. It is found in Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Lithuania, and less often in Belarus.

The animal is closely related to the mole. For its ability to swim miraculously and dig excessively long underground holes, it is sometimes called the water mole. The animal appears on land very rarely. Has a rather unusual appearance, the webbed clawed feet and elongated face attract attention. Body 19-22 cm, tail approximately the same, weight 510 g.

Picture - Muskrat, crested shrew.

The entire tail is covered with horny scales, and on top there are bristly hairs that create a keel. At the base the tail has the smallest diameter. At the beginning of the tail there is a pear-shaped thickening, where specific (odorous, musky) glands are located; oily musk comes out through many holes located in the thickenings below. After thickening, the tail narrows strongly on both sides. The nose is an elongated trunk. Vibrissae excessively long; there are many sensitive hairs on the body.

Photo. Muskrat, crested shrew, shrew - after swimming.

It has short 5-toed limbs, the hind feet are larger than the front ones. The fingers are connected by a swimming membrane. The claws are oblong, slightly curved. A border of elastic hair runs from the edge of the paws, lengthening the swimming surface.

And in this photo, admire how we swim.

The fur covering of the muskrat is thick, velvety, durable, the hairs expand towards the top. Teeth - 44. Muskrats are almost blind. But they have an excellent sense of smell and touch.

The breeding season begins in the spring. The rut occurs against the backdrop of male fights. Pregnancy lasts 45-50 days, after which 1 or 5 babies appear, blind and naked, weighing 2-3.3 g, which is half the size of a newborn rat. A nest is made from wet algae in a pond in a nesting chamber. Two offspring per year (end of May - June, November - December). At one month, babies are fed adult food and become completely independent at 5 months.

The Russian muskrat or khokhulya is an animal from the Red Book: description, photos, pictures and videos, what the muskrat shrew looks like and where it lives.

Photo. Russian muskrat.

We offer you to watch the video film “Russian Muskrat”

and another short video about the nimble shrew Khokhulya.

Classification

View: Russian muskrat

Family: Moles

Squad: Shrews

Class: Mammals

Type: Chordata

Subtype: Vertebrates

Dimensions: body length: 18-22 cm and tail about the same length; body weight: up to 500 g

Lifespan: 4 years in the wild, up to 5 years in captivity

The muskrat is one of the strangest and most mysterious species of animals, on the verge of extinction.

Modern photos This animal may become the last in nature if efforts are not made to preserve this amazing species.

Find a high-quality photo of a muskrat, and even more so see it in natural conditions habitat is becoming increasingly difficult.

This amazing and very strange animal is rapidly dying out. Whether our descendants will see it in nature is a big question.

Looking at the photo, it seems that the positive and eternal smile never leaves the face of this animal.

Habitat

The muskrat, also known as the khokhulya or simply the Russian muskrat, is an endemic species, that is, living in a narrow territory.

Mostly in Russia (the basins of the Ural, Don and Dnieper rivers, in the upper reaches of the Volga), but also in some areas former USSR- in Kazakhstan and Ukraine.

In fact, the fur only seems wet from the outside - it is just a thin film of water, under which it is dry and warm

Unlike many other mammals, this underwater inhabitant does not hibernate in winter: activity remains at the same level.

Moreover, in the winter months, work is literally in full swing to raise a new generation of cubs, which. By the way, it happens again in the summer.

Interesting! The name “khokhulya” comes from the obsolete verb “khukhat”, that is, “to stink”. This is due to the musk odor released by the muskrat's scaly tail.

Nutrition

The muskrat eats a lot - up to a volume equal to its own weight per day! The animal is an excellent hunter, despite its natural blindness.

Long whiskers are the main source of external signals about outside world and about the movement of potential production, among other things.

The species is positioned as an insectivore, but in practice the diet is much richer. In summer, the khokhulya eats leeches, river insects, and gastropods.

In winter, he manages to catch small fish and partially switches to a plant-based diet.

To find food, this furry hunter carefully examines the bottom of the reservoir with his amazing nose and digs up the mud with his paws. The prey is brought into the hole or safe place, where hunting gives way to eating.

A good catch is the river mussel. But it's just a light snack

The “water moles” themselves often become victims of larger predators: foxes and stoats, as well as birds like the kite, golden eagle or marsh harrier.

The list of dangerous enemies of the small waterfowl is long. However, the biggest danger is not in predators, but in animals such as mink.

They displace muskrats from their places natural habitat.

Reproduction

The mating season for muskrats begins during the spring flood.

Sexually mature individuals (about 11 months old) create pairs just at the time when they leave the flooded burrows.

These days, the silence on the river banks is broken by the loud chirping of males and the melodic sounds made by females. Tough battles between males are common.

Couples are formed at the time of a general disaster - the flooding of familiar homes

Pregnancy lasts about 50 days. One female gives birth to no more than 5 cubs. Sometimes there is only one.

The babies are hairless, in addition they are blind and completely helpless. They need protection, for which the mother makes a nest from bottom plants.

The cubs weigh about 3 g and grow in conditions of very low temperature and incredible humidity. Muskrats breed in May-June and November-December.

Males remain nearby with the brood. After only 4 months, babies become adults and completely independent.

Interesting!In case of danger, the female can transport the cubs to another hole on her own back.

Relationship with a person

As already mentioned, man's main contribution to this species is its destruction. Once upon a time, the khokhulya was a commercial species.

The reason was the musk secreted by the glands on the mammal's tail. Until the 17th century, this factor remained the only one due to which the animal was mercilessly exterminated.

This allowed the population to increase. From 1940 to 1957, trapping continued, and then was banned again. Now it was possible to catch Khokhulya only for the purpose of resettlement.

Man has become the main culprit in the disappearance of this relict species, and today zoologists are making great efforts to preserve it

Considerable work has been done in this direction. Muskrats were populated in areas where they had never existed before. Nature reserves and sanctuaries were created.

Today, work to preserve the rare relict species continues.

Most of all in Russia, the endemic is found in the areas:

• Kursk region;
• Smolenskaya;
• Bryansk;
• Tambovskaya;
• Ivanovskaya;
• Kostroma;
• Yaroslavl;
• Vladimir regions.

The maximum number of individuals (about two thousand) lives in the Kurgan region. In Siberia, the number of species in last years dropped to critical levels.

There is no specific data on keeping muskrats at home.

This is not difficult to understand from the description of the mammal’s lifestyle: it needs a lot of food, a special microclimate, a place where it can dig a large hole or trench, as well as a reservoir.

This photo is very rare. This is due to the secretive lifestyle and the low probability of meeting a representative of this species in nature.

But the animal is still bred in captivity - zoological parks have such experience.

There it also increases average age animals compared to their counterparts living in the wild for an average of one year.

Thus, there can be no talk of any home maintenance. Except in cases where all the necessary conditions are available, but this is impossible to do in a city apartment.

Today, scientists have a great responsibility on their shoulders: the task of preserving the muskrat in its natural habitat.

If you don’t make every possible effort, then in 50 years children will only learn about this funny waterfowl from documentaries and those few photos that can be found on the Internet.

Muskrat: The most unusual inhabitant of rivers

The muskrat is one of the strangest and most mysterious species of animals, on the verge of extinction. Modern photographs of this animal in nature may become the last if efforts are not made to preserve this amazing species.

There are many amazing and beautiful creatures on Earth, but perhaps the Russian muskrat has the strangest appearance among them. An animal that prefers not to be seen by anyone is still on the verge of extinction. This can be considered another negative result of people’s activities.

What does a Russian muskrat look like: description

Khokhulya, as this animal is also called, belongs to the order of insectivores and has a rather funny appearance. With a body length of up to 22 cm, its weight is approximately half a kilogram, and the tail is equal to the size of the body. The animal's muzzle ends with a funny proboscis-nose, on which there are small nostrils. Since the Russian muskrat is practically blind, it is this nose and paws that are its “guides” in the outside world. Her mustache helps her find food.

In general, the features of the animal’s appearance include:

• long mustache;
• large tail covered with scales;
• short legs, with the hind legs being much wider than the front ones;
• toes equipped with webbed toes, which the Russian muskrat (the photo demonstrates) successfully uses for swimming;
• thick fur, generously lubricated with fat, which saves it from the cold in the chilly winter water.

It is interesting that the tail of this small and clearly pleased with its appearance animal (the Ukrainian looks as if he is constantly smiling from embarrassment) has a different thickness along its entire length. The closer it is to the body, the wider it becomes. Islands of thickening appear to form on it, which are glands that produce musk.

The muskrat looks so unusual. In fact, she can be called one of the most secretive individuals on the planet.

Belonging to an ancient family

If anyone doesn't like change, it's the Russian muskrat. This relic has lived on the planet, unchanged for more than 30 million years, but it was discovered only at the end of the 18th century. Avoiding meeting the most for so long dangerous predator on the planet - by a human, only a truly secretive creature can.

Once upon a time, the khokhulya inhabited rivers and lakes throughout Europe and lived at the same time as mammoths and the most ancient representatives of the order of beak-headed lizards that have survived to this day - the three-eyed tuataria.

The proboscis brings it closer to the echidna, but that’s where the similarities end. The Russian muskrat defined its way of life for itself millions of years ago and adheres to it today.

Habitats

Typically seen in natural environment habitat is difficult, since she spends most of her time in her burrows, the tunnels between which stretch up to 30 meters under water. This animal is an inhabitant of two elements - water and earth, but gives preference to the first. That is why he managed to hide for so long.

Their burrows are designed so that they have an entrance on the shore of a reservoir, and an exit in the water. They can reach an area of ​​3 m² and accommodate up to 10 or more animals at the same time. Usually the Russian muskrat, the photo and description of which we provided in this article, walks by itself, but in winter these animals tend to unite. They do not hibernate and continue to actively hunt, in which they are helped by air bubbles frozen under the ice.

The peculiarity of Khokhuli is its prolonged stay under water. She can hold her breath for a long time, releasing small bubbles as she moves. They are precisely what attract small underwater inhabitants, which the muskrat catches for lunch.

Nutrition

Thanks to its fur, which is completely impervious to water due to its excellent fat lubrication, the muskrat spends almost all its time in the water, where it finds food for itself. Its menu includes leeches and beetles, river mollusks and even small fish. If there is no food, then the khokhulya will not disdain frogs and plant roots, although it belongs to the order of insectivorous animals.

Long whiskers and an excellent sense of smell help her find food. Having carefully examined the bottom of the reservoir, she digs a hole exactly where her “lunch” is hidden. Having grabbed the victim, the muskrat hurries to its hole to calmly eat it.

This water mole can be called a glutton, since in a day it is capable of eating an amount of food equal to or even exceeding its own weight.

Reproduction of muskrat

The Khokhuli's nest is located on the shore, and there she gives birth to up to five cubs at a time. Childbirth occurs in autumn and spring after a month and a half of pregnancy. The babies are so weak and helpless that they need their mother until they are 4 months old, but at six months they are already quite capable of caring for themselves.

This is not surprising, since at birth they weigh only 2-3 grams, but after six months of age they become quite experienced hunters.

At one year, the young are ready to mate and continue their family line. The wedding games of these cute animals are accompanied by chirping sounds from the males and pleasant melodic tunes from the females. Oddly enough, there are quite fierce fights between males for the female, which is difficult to expect from these small smiling animals.

On average, muskrats live up to 4 years in freedom and up to 5 in captivity. This is quite a bit, considering that females do not always give birth to 5 babies.

The main enemies of Khokhuli

The destruction of these glorious animals began almost immediately after their discovery and description. Their fur was once valued more than arctic fox and beaver fur due to its water-repellent properties. People were no less attracted by the musk produced by the muskrat. Thus, a species that survived dinosaurs and earthly civilizations found itself on the verge of extinction due to human greed.

In the 20th century in Central Russia, hunting for muskrats was banned twice, which helped increase its population, but this did not help. Therefore, today the Russian muskrat is again under the protection of the law (the Red Book is proof of this), but it is no longer being destroyed by people personally, but by their livelihoods.

How many muskrats are left?

Nowadays, in all the usual habitats of this wonderful animal, there are no more than 30,000 individuals left, and this number is decreasing every year. In addition to the main enemy - man, he also has natural enemies - predator birds, foxes, otters, etc.

Often muskrats die due to floods, when their nests are deep under water. There are too many challenges and enemies for such tiny creatures. If this continues, then in 40-60 years you can only read about them in a book or see them on TV. The gradual extinction of these cute animals occurs on the banks of rivers such as the Don, Ural, Dnieper and Volga.

Relic Rescue

Water pollution, drainage of swamps and small rivers, reduction in the number of insects and mussels that desmans feed on - all this continues to threaten the population of this species. In order to somehow correct their mistakes, scientists began to resettle animals in areas where they had never been found before, and are anxiously awaiting whether the “migrants” will give birth to offspring in a new place.

Some zoological institutes and parks have also begun to rescue muskrats by creating conditions in captivity that match their natural ones. As practice has shown, this works, but only with constant monitoring of the animals. It will take a lot of time for the muskrat population to become so large that it can be excluded from the Red Book.

There is no question of keeping them on private property, since it is almost impossible to create their habitat at home. Currently, muskrats can only be caught for relocation, and then only if there is permitting documents, otherwise violators will face troubles with the law and wildlife defenders.

If water moles like the new shores, then there is hope that these smiling, big-nosed animals will continue to represent their ancient genus on planet Earth. In this case will receive new story Russian muskrat, short description which we have brought to your attention.