Muskrats Eating Frogs???!

Have started trapping rats in the last week and noticed something odd when I pulled one out a a feeder hut . In the jaws of the trap with the muskrat was a half eaten grass frog..... then today was checking sets and was pulling out moss for a plug and sure enough more pieces of a frog. And there was a dead one floating not far away so I grabbed him and ran a baited 160 on a pole to see if it will catch a rat . Has anyone ever seen this before ? I have never heard of such a thing . But there is also not many water trappers in my area .

Mink eating frogs in the feeder huts? Sounds more realistic to me.

I thought that as well but you would think I would have caught a mink by now

Of course rats eat frogs-and clams and other rats.

Yes, muskrats will eat frogs, snails and other aquatic insects and animals. I am not sure what per cent of their diet it would be, but I think if they are available them. Many years ago I trapped a stream that contained a lot of fresh water mussels. One day I came across a muskrat eating something up on a dike. When it saw me it jumped into the water, so I went to see what it had been eating and it was a mussel. I have no idea how it got it open, but it had eaten about half of it. I left it there and the day it was almost all eaten. I worked for the State at the time, so I ask the State Biologist about it and he confirmed that they did such things.

Garry-

Boco has it right. Seems like the prefer plant roots but will take advantage of what's in their habitat.

I have caught a lot of rats using a rat shank for bait. All those clam shells on the banks aren't from just coon.

Have seen it in several areas where I trap though here the frog population is down but I know of several areas were I think the major part of the rats diet is fresh water mussels because you will see huge piles of mussels shells where the have pulled them up to feed

The rats in these areas are also larger and better furred then in areas where they are eating mostly vegetarian diets

One year I found a bunch of feedbeds along the river bank made of crayfish parts. I set every one figuring I was in mink heaven. Didn't pan out for mink but man did I get a bunch of nice rats..

Some of the things I've pulled out of rat houses after freeze up are mind boggling...

Interesting . Well we don't have very many mussels but we have a ton of frogs. So I will try to post if the baited frog conibear connects . Thanks for confirming my suspicions

one that gets me is giggin a frog with a mouse in its mouth.

i'm a firm believer muskrats are an evolved creature in ways not the same animal as in the 60;s and 70's

I think lots of stuff eats grass frogs. They are my favorite catfish bait. I have never seen a domestic cat that would not eat one. Dogs eat them too so I suspect coyotes and fox as well. With all the clams rats eat I am not surprised to learn rats eat them. I have used bull frogs for fish bait and they are terrible. Seen cats chase them and play with them but I think its we humans that eat most of the bull frogs. Those grass frogs must just be more nutritious or something.

bullfrogs can blow that throat out and stop that whole swallowing process of the predator i was told by an ol timer.

disclaimer--in a bar and he was hammered.

all that plant matter rats eat is real low on protein, they need to eat some kind of meat.

seems a bunch of people could learn from the lowly muskrat.

You just always hear all the way from grade school that rats and beavers are herbivores so I was surprised to learn the opposite

Lots of times I have seen where rats were eating tadpoles, but they only chew off the tails, do not eat the round part.

Rats will also eat fish, I worked in a fish hatchery and have seen rats pile up trout just like a mink, saw one do it so I know it for a fact.

Yeah they eat all sorts of things non veggie... when I trapped a lot of rats in SD if there was a pond that was deeper it usually had lots of bigger scuds (fresh water shrimp) if I saw loads of them along the shore those rats were always a size bigger and fatter so it was key to me to get on those right away and work those a lil heavier and longer sure bumps up the average taking XXXLs vs XL . Wish I could go back and get in on that bonanza again but SD changed the laws no fall or spring rat trapping for Non res

I believe it, they eat lot's of those big snails in our pond. Mike

Cattle eat all kinds of weird things if they get mineral deficient so why wouldn't rats?
One of my best friend's dad is a feedlot nutritionist and he figures out all kinds of odd behaviors and a surprising number are related to what is not in the diet that the body wants.

Moose will eat voles and shrews, if they can catch one.

Jim

Yes

Same with squirrels eating other dead critters / cannibalism. Its pretty wild, out in the wild.

Lol, same here!

Crab pinchers piled up and I was getting the mink stretchers ready. Lol
Piled up the rats is all I did.

One day while duck and goose hunting along the Bighhorn river I was walking over to set out some decoys and seen a goose carcass that was floating in a little swirl along the bank with a muskrat eating on what was left of the exposed meat after it was butchered. I to was really surprised to see this as mentioned above all I'd ever heard was that they were plant eaters .

I agree with all the above, but I think beaver do not cheat like that. I do not have any photos of rats eating fish though. I have trail camera photos of rats on a deer back bone put out for mink. But have not beaver eating anything but bark and in mid summer they eat green ferns too but noting else that I can find. ......jk

I have watched rats bring tadpoles up onto the ice and eat only the tails. There were hundreds of tailless tadpoles on the ice there. Have caught several rats over the years with big freshwater mussels in their teeth. Sometimes it is easy to locate a rat hole by looking for mussel shells just outside of it.

lol, tails must be a delicacy for those rats with the tad poles...

Lots of rodentia eat meat.Mice and voles are big time meat eaters.They as well as muskrat are known to eat their own young also.
Red squirrels will eat eggs and actually kill and eat small birds in the nest,and many are caught eating beaver meat in marten boxes-same with the flying squirrel.
Rabbits(varying hare) eat meat also and are attracted to beaver meat baits in ground cubbies.
Like rabbits beavers are also coprophagic,but I have never seen evidence of beaver eating meat.

I know many things eat frogs but I was surprised to look out my window one day and witness a Wood Duck hen swallowing a good sized frog. Another of my blurred images but a rare sight for me.

I watched a gray squirrel grab an old chicken breast we tossed out in the yard, took up the nearby tree and chowed down!

I watched a gray squirrel grab an old chicken breast we tossed out in the yard, took up the nearby tree and chowed down!

A good thread !