Michigan’s muskrat records lean hard toward the southern Lower Peninsula. Washtenaw County leads with 274, followed by Livingston, Ingham, and Oakland, a belt of lake-dotted, marshy country around Ann Arbor, Lansing, and the northern Detroit suburbs where plenty of people walk the shorelines with a camera. All 2,247 records statewide come from iNaturalist, so that tilt is partly a measure of who’s out looking.
The named sites tell a wetter story. Kellogg Biological Station tops the list, and Pointe Mouillee State Game Area, a diked marsh complex on the Lake Erie shore, comes next, with the Maple River and Gregory game areas close behind. Up north, Schoolcraft County ranks twelfth with 46 records, the only Upper Peninsula county in the top dozen.
Reports climb steeply in March and peak in April, as ice pulls off the marshes and muskrats start shuttling between lodges and feeding spots. They bottom out in January, then build again from October into December, when bare cattails and fresh push-ups make the animals easier to spot before freeze-up. It’s native to Michigan, and NatureServe ranks it S5, or secure.
Full species profile
