I think the general consensus is the muskrat population is down, but in my area there seems to be a significant decline in just the past few years. I was wondering if this is the case in most areas?

What's a Muskrat?

Really bad around me this year.

They’re all but extinct here.

very low in my area but i think this year is better than last year. But nothing compared to years ago thats for sure. I could name tons of reason why I believe and i think they are all part of it and its sad. i hate to say it cause it makes me cringe but the states should do something to help them i think. not sure if regulations on them would help but research needs to be done to help them out for sure. IMO

How about killin off some apex predators? That'd be a start, am I wrong?

I’ve seen one rat hut this year

i think that would be and its part of the problem. swans. fox. yotes. coons. hawks. eagles. mink. bears. humans. all play a part more then i can list. everything kills a rat. or will if they can or rip a house apart if they can. or kill it if its near their nest (swans). and the fragmentation of their habitat is the number one reason they have mortality. pollution too.

It boils down to people are the main reason .We are taking over their habitat. And
modern farming methods lead the charge. Along with ripping out habitat and building more and more subdivisions.

It boils down to people are the main reason .We are taking over their habitat. And
modern farming methods lead the charge. Along with ripping out habitat and building more and more subdivisions.

5 years pfffftttt its been about 20+ here in my neck of the woods. Didn't we have all those animals preying in them back in the 70s when everyone was trapping them and there were over populations of rats in every creek?

No, we did not have a Hawk on every pole back then. They were managed either legally or not. I know there are other factors but imo apex predators are a great place to start.

If it is the hawks that are doing most of the damage and the rats are almost gone what are they eating now? We still have plenty of rabbits and other small game around here just no rats.

well said

We get water we get rats some places here had 40 inches of rain now the rats are popping up everywhere, it seems every puddle in a field has a rat house now. When the water dries up the rat go away.

Very good point; rabbits have plenty of enemies as well but I see a lot of them.
I don't know what is causing the decrease in rat population. I was just wondering if it was the same in most places and it seems to be.

rats are down here, we had all the flooding that killed off there food supply in the river bottom .

I've got no rabbits here either anymore. No Grouse, Pheasants, and very few Squirrels on public land which used to be flowing with them all. Like I said, there are other factors, farming practices, habitat loss, pesticides, poor as heck State wildlife management, ours suck, etc. Some things we can't change, like the hedgerows on farms that held critters. But if we got off the bandwagon of saving and then not managing the apex predators, that would be a leg up and would bring about more food onto our tables.

another way of thinking too is most places are in a drought compared to history. but also... think of a hawk or a tote or fox or mink in a huge swamp looking to eat they wouldn't come across a rat often but now every rat that swims through a culvert is in a 2 foot section of that swamp to go to the other side. easy pickens. but there are so many factors. not just predation mostly human imputes IMO. water usage from us as well. fragmentation of habitat causes more problems then we even know. more water here more rats... as well... just means more habitat to live and feed in.

Habitat or lack thereof.
Rats are prolific creatures and can propagate exponentially in a short time from heavy predation or harvest if the habitat is there and not fragmented.
I believe some invasive plant species have destroyed a good bit of rat swamp in the last 20 years or more.