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Backyard and Beyond: Signs of spring are all around

Bret Cool’s muskrat with a leafy snack.

Muskrats are semi-aquatic rodents that spend much of their lives in water, gathering and eating aquatic vegetation. The one spied by Bret Cool is bringing its prize, a “bouquet of leaves,” back to its den, maybe to feed its offspring. This cousin of the beaver is not really a rat and may raise up to three litters each summer, each litter having up to 10 pups.

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