The 29 Texas muskrat records fall into three widely separated pieces of country. In the far west, irrigation canals and river channels carry the Rio Grande’s water through the desert, and El Paso County holds 5 records, the most of any county. On the upper Gulf Coast, Jefferson, Galveston, and Harris counties hold records from coastal marsh. Along the Red River and up into the Panhandle, Grayson, Potter, and Hemphill counties add scattered reports, including one from Gene Howe Wildlife Management Area on the Canadian River.
A small, recent record set
Nearly all of the Texas records, 28 of the 29, come from iNaturalist, so they mostly trace where people with cameras happened to meet a muskrat. March has the most, with 6, and every other month has 4 or fewer, too few to show a real season.
Among Texas mammals, the muskrat sits well down the list by record count, which fits an animal tied to permanent water in a mostly dry state. NatureServe ranks it S5, secure, in Texas, and it’s native here.
Full species profile
