Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 64

“Monster” of the Marsh

I

T’S a big natural world out there. Surprises wait around each bend and over
every hilltop. Knowing that, I confess to a sheepish ear for reports of “new”
and “unknown” animals. Maybe, like me, you too perk up a little and listen when
some new sighting makes the news. You know the legendary names as well as I
do — Loch Ness monster, Bigfoot, and a few others of that fanciful guild. They
captivate, I think, because despite the incredulous claims these legends have just
enough grounding in nature to pique our challenged curiosity.
I wasn’t thinking about Loch Ness at the time but a couple of weeks ago I saw
something that strained explanation.
Evening gathered as I dropped down off a ridge where I’d been picking morels.
My truck was parked on the shore of a large, secluded pond and I stole a moment
to admire the setting before driving off.
Far down the shoreline, what looked like a large
aquatic animal was disturbing the surface. The creature looked to be six or so feet long, and swam with
an undulating, snake-like motion so that its supple
body writhed and looped behind the guiding
point of its head. A slight breeze marred the
water around it, exaggerating its bulk, and
the angle of evening sun made it hard to
discern detail. But no creature I know of, in
a western Pennsylvania pond, could have matched its
size or demeanor.
The information my eyes provided me wasn’t adding up, but the thing was
getting closer, squirming its way along the shoreline toward my post, trailing a
long sinister wake that dissolved in the chop.
Steadily it progressed, out of the sun’s glare, until it neared me along the bank.
There I could see color, and the deflected rays no longer disguised its nature. The
6-foot serpentine beast I’d watched draw near me was a muskrat with the base of
a long lance of cattail leaf clamped in its teeth, trailing behind on the surface.
Muskrats, of course, use cattail as food and for building huts and feeding
platforms. The “monster” I saw was our largest member of the family Cricetidae,
which embraces all our native mice and rats, tending to routine affairs.
I suspect many of us will always take pause and consider reports of outlandish
encounters. But we don’t need that prospect to hold our interest. Real nature
is more surprising and wondrous than any apparitions that lurk in the prickly
habitat of imagination.

64

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Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013

Contents
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - Cover1
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - Cover2
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - Contents
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 2
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 3
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 4
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 5
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 6
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 7
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 8
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 9
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 10
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 11
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 12
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 13
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 14
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 15
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 16
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 17
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 18
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 19
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 20
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 21
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 22
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 23
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 24
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 25
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 26
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 27
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 28
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 29
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 30
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 31
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Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 33
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 34
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 35
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 36
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 37
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 38
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 39
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 40
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 41
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 42
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 43
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Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 45
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Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 50
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Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 60
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 61
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 62
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 63
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 64
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - I1
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - I2
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - Cover3
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - Cover4
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