January 7, 2008

Where have all the muskrats gone?
Trappers wants study into population’s mysterious decline

NORTH RIVER — It shouldn’t be happening.
Female muskrats give birth to 15 to 20 young a year, more than enough to compensate for devastating diseases, trapping pressure, changes in weather patterns and reduced food supplies, says a University of Prince Edward Island biologist.

So why, then, is one of the most prolific of furbearing mammals pulling a vanishing act?

“I’ve never seen anything like this before in the literature or elsewhere,” said Daryl Guignion.

“The population has plummeted and stayed down for years,” said the UPEI researcher, a presenter at the 2008 convention of the P.E.I. Trappers Association held Saturday in North River.

“The muskrat population has collapsed in many parts of P.E.I. and we don’t know why,” said Guignion, who dismissed trapping pressure as a potential cause.

Read the rest of the article here:
http://www.journalpioneer.com/index.cfm?sid=95460&sc=118

The CBC did a story of it's own the following day.

January 8, 2008
CBC News

Prince Edward Island's muskrat population is disappearing and biologists want to find out why.

'We were hoping that the situation would sort of correct itself.'— Provincial biologist Randy Dibblee

Island fur trappers used to bag up to 10,000 muskrat a year. Now they're lucky to find 3,000. The population decline, which has been occurring over the last decade, has wildlife experts baffled.

"In various ponds and sections of the Island the population has all but collapsed," said UPEI biology professor Daryl Guignion.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/prince-edward-island/story/2008/01/08/muskrat-d...