Muskrats build distinctive dome-shaped lodges out of cattails and mud, and Wyoming’s 196 records concentrate heavily in the Yellowstone-Teton high country, with Yellowstone National Park’s 28 named sightings and Grand Teton’s 20 tracing the slow backwaters and oxbow lakes of the region’s headwater rivers.
Records show an odd double signal, a February bump nearly as strong as the June peak, with a sharp March dip in between, a pattern that likely tracks scattered survey timing more than any true midwinter surge in muskrat activity. Records climb again into June, more than 14 times the March low, as ice-out opens up marsh habitat. NatureServe rates the species secure (S5) statewide, and every one of Wyoming’s records comes from GBIF specimen data rather than a photograph.
Full species profile
