268 Department of Conservation of Louisiana 



along the young muskrat, in this manner pulling in the kit. 

 After killing the snake, Mr. Svihla found pieces of un- 

 chewed paille-fine grass in the mouth of the victim, proving 

 that the kit had been attacked while feeding. Dissection 

 showed that the snake had another muskrat kit the same 

 size in its stomach. 



When Vernon Bailey, chief field naturalist of the Bio- 

 logical Survey, was in Louisiana studying the musk- 

 rat, he was impressed with the fact that our animal did 

 not swim about in the many streams nearly as much as did 

 this fur animal's cousins in the north, and he became con- 

 vinced that, through constant and age-long persecution by 

 enemies in the water, such as gar fish, turtles and alligators, 

 that the Louisiana muskrat had abandoned a natatorial 

 habit and confined itself to land, entering the water only 

 when forced to by enemies. 



Studies seem to indicate there is a great deal to this 

 surmise and that one of the chief enemies is the big, power- 

 ful and rapacious gar fish. Just what damage the gars do 

 has not been worked out, but the several species of this 

 fish inhabiting our Louisiana bayous, from the small needle- 

 nose gar to the tremendous alligator gar, which reaches a 

 maximum of six feet, undoubtedly play havoc with any 

 swimming muskrat found in the waters. 



Of the damage raptorial birds of prey do to muskrats, 

 the owls are to be counted on as doing the most, and, while 

 the hawk, especially the harmless marsh hawk, has been 

 given a bad name in this regard, it appears they prey on 

 the living muskrat very slightly, if at all. The short-eared 

 owl and the barn owl, from an examination of their pellets 

 picked up in the marsh, prey on the mice to a considerable 

 extent and this is not to be wondered at when we consider 

 that the muskrat is a mammal of pronounced nocturnal 

 habits. The great horned owl undoubtedly destroys many. 

 While marsh hawks, very common raptores of our marsh- 

 lands in winter, have been seen time and again feeding on 

 muskrats, they only prey on the dead animal — on the 

 skinned carcass left in the marsh by the trapper, or on a 

 dead 'rat held by a trap. 





