The muskrat was the second wild mammal I encountered along this lakeshore when I was a small child: a muskrat often nested in a float from which we swam. (The first encounter was with the squirrel).
The Kootenay Lake website offers other pictures of local muskrats.
Muskrats abound around the Lake, but one of the best viewing places is the Nelson waterfront. The many steep rocky banks provide both a habitat for muskrats and a viewing platform for humans. The adjacent shallows offer underwater plants which provide most of the muskrat’s diet (final picture).
A muskrat foraging along the Nelson waterfront early Friday morning (April, 8).
