Both muskrats and beavers build lodges in watery areas, however muskrats tend to build smaller lodges, closer to the edges of these waterways. This allows them to tunnel into the banks to create more swampy areas, their prefered habitat. Muskrat lodges rarely exceed three feet in height.
Beavers, on the other hand, tend to build much larger lodges in the deepest parts of the pond (often times created by their own damning of smaller creeks) to allow for continued, year round access. Lodges can be 50 feet in circumference and up to ten feet high.
I still don't know if we have beavers or muskrats in the swampond... or both- though an old timer once told me that beavers and muskrats don't like livin' together.
I still don't know if we have beavers or muskrats in the swampond... or both- though an old timer once told me that beavers and muskrats don't like livin' together. 
