Posted on November 17, 2025
The rodents’ munching creates vital wetland openings, aiding restoration and boosting native biodiversity naturally
With their surgical nibbles, these large, semi-aquatic rodents with big teeth have become key helpers for ecologists restoring degraded wetlands across the Great Lakes in the US.
They are not the famous beavers that build dams, but you can often find them in the same wet areas. Muskrats – which are more like voles and hamsters – enjoy eating and making their homes from invasive cattails
Beavers are known for changing their environment by building dams that control water flow. On the other hand, muskrats can cut parts of the invasive cattails that help them breathe, making it harder for the cattails to grow.
In areas densely packed with tall cattails, muskrats create a “patchwork” of small openings that allow plants of different heights to grow. That, in turn, creates habitat for diverse native wildlife.
Getting help from muskrats and copying their behaviour could be part of bigger efforts to save and restore coastal wetlands. These wetlands once covered more than a million acres in the Great Lakes region, but now only about half of that remains.
