Muskrats are the bane of Bonhoeffer Botanical Gardens … until they disappear from time to time from raids by the Stillaguamish River Otter. The Gardens’ Wapato (Indian Potato) fed not just the Indigenous Peoples, consider the muskrat that also gathers and stores the bulbs in large caches. These are not the typical
starches American Natives used (potatoes, squashes, corn, and beans) most likely never introduced into the Northwest because of geographic restrictions (ocean currents and mountain barriers). Like Gardens’ beavers favor Scouler’s Willows, our muskrats seem to have sonar to target Wapato bulbs *most likely use smell). 
We wonder how:
a. Muskrats and beavers know how to harvest and store bulbs.
b. If mammals have “stored computer programs” related to skills; why don’t humans?
c. For example, who taught a lonely marmot to cut grass, dry it in front of burrows?
and when it comes to humans:
d. Like the Dark Ages losing the Roman knowledge of how to make concrete, how quickly a culture’s skills and knowledge can be lost. There is so much the muskrat can teach us.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mammals_of_Washington
https://woodlandfishandwildlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/beaver.pdf
https://wdfw.wa.gov/species-habitats/species/ondatra-zibethicus
http://naturemappingfoundation.org/natmap/maps/wa/mammals/WA_muskrat.html
https://plants.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/plantguide/pdf/pg_sacu.pdf
Muskrats not only dig and eat Wapato (Indian Potatoes), they also do what to the bulbs?
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