In Indiana, the county with the most muskrat records isn’t Marion, home to Indianapolis, but Tippecanoe, with 109. It’s a university county on the Wabash River, where students and researchers log plenty of wildlife from ditches, retention ponds, and river backwaters. Marion follows with 60, and Allen, around Fort Wayne, with 52.
The northwest corner holds the strongest named site. Indiana Dunes National Park has 31 records, and Porter and Lake counties around it rank fourth and fifth. The ponds and marshes behind the Lake Michigan dunes are prime muskrat water, and the park draws a steady flow of visitors. Farther south, Goose Pond Fish and Wildlife Area, a restored prairie marsh in Greene County, and Willow Slough in Newton County show the animal in the state’s big managed wetlands.
Of 582 Indiana records, 581 come from iNaturalist, so nearly the whole picture is built from casual photos rather than surveys. That makes the April high of 124 records, with May and March close behind, a measure of spring visibility more than a count of animals. Reports drop to a summer and fall trickle, and January and September are the thinnest months.
NatureServe’s Indiana rank is S5, secure, for this native rodent.
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