There’s a nuisance in the neighborhood. It sleeps all day but is active at night, eating and burrowing. Excessive eating isn’t the issue. It is an omnivore, eating mainly aquatic plants.

The problem is the home it is building along the banks of a pond. It looks like a beaver but has a tail like a rat. It used to be considered a delicacy, dipped in flour and fried in butter.

Its valuable pelts were a major part of the early Canadian and Native American lucrative trapping business. It is a rodent by many names: marsh rabbit, mud cat and mud beaver.

Full story here.