iN PHOTOS: Muskrats get busy as spring arrives in Kamloops, Okanagan

As soft and cuddly as they appear, not everyone thinks muskrats are adorable. As the name indicates, the critters are big rodents, and worse, they spray a musky smelling urine to mark territory. Much like rats, muskrats have small eyes, short legs with large hind feet and compact bodies, but these oversized rodents can reach 13 inches long and weigh up to four pounds, according to Britannica https://www.britannica.com/animal/muskrat . Their tales are scaly and flattened vertically to use as a rudder when swimming, and their hind feet are partly webbed and covered with bristles to use as oars. Some area wildlife photographers snapped photos of the furry animals this spring. Kamloops photographer Lyn MacDonald took photos of a muskrat at McArthur Island Park earlier this spring, and maintains, despite their rodent traits and smelliness, muskrats are “cute in their own way.” “I like their rudder like tail which is opposite of a beaver’s tail and I like the song Muskrat Love,” she said. Muskrats are Indigenous to North America and found in marshes, wooded swamps, lakes and streams where they build houses out of vegetation and dig burrows near the water for shelter. They snack mostly on vegetation and occasionally prey on crustaceans, fish and small birds.  Sometimes confused with beavers, the rodents can stay under water for up to 20 minutes at a stretch and swim up to five kilometres per hour.  If you have photos of muskrats in local ponds and marshes in your neighbour, send them to news@infonews.ca mailto:news@infonews.ca . To contact a reporter for this story, email Shannon Ainslie mailto:sainslie@infonews.ca  or call 250-819-6089 or email the editor mailto:news@infonews.ca . You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom mailto:tips@infonews.ca  and be entered to win a monthly prize draw. We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. SUBSCRIBE to our awesome newsletter here https://infotel.ca/newsletter .