In summer, water plants, tree buds, and inner bark. In winter, branches from aspen, willow, and other trees and shrubs. Beavers live in colonies of four to ten. Before the Europeans trapped so many, they could be found almost all across North America, except in deserts and in the Arctic. Cattails, rushes, corn, dandelions, and other plants.
Muskrats live in lodges made of plants or in burrows in the banks of lakes and streams.
Mink are their most important predator. Mostly forested areas away from people. Berries, nuts, carrion, honey, and ants. Pocket gophers, ground squirrels, birds, reptiles, and insects. Badgers are nocturnal and liver underground in a mazing system of tunnels.