332 Department of Conservation of Louisiana 



muskrats then become very active and make their way 

 through the dive holes and out into the great outdoors to 

 begin their battles of life. 



The muskrat is the most prolific breeder that we have 

 among the fur animals. Its rapid increase of numbers is 

 due, perhaps, to the fact that the young of the first litter 

 become sexually mature and mate before they experience 

 their first winter. Some have set the sexual maturity a 3 

 early as four months, but this, too, remains to be proved, 

 and it seems only reasonable to presume that a muskrat 

 must be six months old to properly function in this regard. 

 Even though they do breed this early in life, it seems quite 

 evident, from our researches, that muskrats do not physic- 

 ally mature or reach a real prime condition, as regards 

 pelage, until they are at least a year old. Therefore, this 

 is another reason for preferring the "ranching" method 

 over the "farming" of them, for it will not be necessary 

 to supply your farm stock with so much food and every 

 expense saved adds just that much to your profits in the 

 enterprise. 



Introduction of Muskrats 



That muskrats can be introduced in localities where 

 they have never existed before has been proved by the 

 Imperial Valley project and the growth of the muskrat 

 population there. In 1905, Dr. E. W. Nelson, former chief 

 of the Bureau of Biological Survey, tells us that four Cana- 

 dian muskrats were introduced on a nobleman's estate in 

 Bohemia, a section of Germany. Since that time these 

 animals have increased so rapidly that they have not only 

 spread over a large part of Bohemia and into Bavaria 

 and Saxony but into Austria and Moravia as well, and they 

 have become such pests that measures have been prescribed 

 against them by the Agricultural Council of Bohemia. A 

 curious fact in connection with this introduction is that 

 these Bohemia muskrats did not maintain the silky, fine fur 

 of their Canadian ancestors, but developed a coarse, hairy 

 pelage that made them unfit for the fur trade. 



