A wetland in the middle of Murfreesboro accounts for more Tennessee muskrat records than anywhere else. Murfree Springs Refuge has 42, and it lifts Rutherford County to the top of the county list with 97, more than double Davidson’s 44. Radnor Lake, a state natural area ringed by trails on the south side of Nashville, comes second among named places.
East, Middle, and West
East Tennessee adds its own clusters: Knox County around Knoxville, Sullivan and Carter counties in the northeast corner, and Cherokee National Forest along the mountains. Seven Islands, a state birding park on the French Broad River, shows up too. In the far west, Shelby County around Memphis holds 35, and Reelfoot Lake in Lake County, the shallow, cypress-edged lake left by the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811 and 1812, adds a handful.
All 398 records come from iNaturalist, and the leaders are mostly city wetlands with boardwalks or lakeside trails, so the pattern partly traces foot traffic. Reports climb from February to an April high, ease in May, then tick up again in June before falling through summer. October and November are the quietest months.
Tennessee’s rank from NatureServe is S5, meaning secure, and the muskrat is native to all three of the state’s grand divisions.
Full species profile
