What Animal Has A Tail Like A Beaver
You're walking forth a riverside path when you hear a splash in the water. You're expecting a jumping fish when you see a furry creature paddling forth. Y'all watch as it gets closer to shore. Simply what is it? A beaver? An otter? Or…something else?
Semi-aquatic mammals – those species adapted to freshwater habitats – are found around the globe. In North America, these are among the most enjoyable wild animals to detect. But many people find identifying them disruptive, especially every bit they look like a swimming blob of fur.
Endless times, I take heard excited hikers exclaiming "Beaver!" but to detect a diminutive muskrat paddling around a pond.
Conservation efforts take greatly benefited species similar beavers and river otters, and so you have a great chance of seeing these in many parts of the The states and Canada.
Hopefully, this guide volition assistance you place North America'southward common freshwater mammals.
What'due south that Mammal?
Many people discover wild fauna identification overwhelming. But let'southward prepare you for success. First, check out my previous field guide to usually misidentified mammals to learn how to avert common pitfalls in wildlife watching.
A proficient field guide is indispensable and can assist with range, habitat, size and primal identifying features of each species. If you are interested in taking a deep dive (if y'all'll pardon the pun), I highly recommend Glynnis A. Hood's book, Semi-Aquatic Mammals. It covers 140 species of semi-aquatic mammals, representing 22 families, constitute effectually the globe. It's must reading for mammal nerds.
When you see a mammal swimming in a lake, or running along a creek depository financial institution, there are some easy ways to narrow your identification. First, wait for the tail. The tail frequently is a key identifying characteristic, and tin aid you narrow your ID. Look at the overall shape of the fauna (does it look round or more streamlined) and at the fur (is it soft or coarse?).
Lookout the creature's beliefs. Does it appear to exist hunting, or is it foraging on streamside vegetation? Is it returning to a den? What is in its mouth? All these can provide of import cues to assist you make a confident, and correct, identification.
At present allow'south await at the semi-aquatic species you're likely to run across.
Beaver
The beaver is a charismatic species that most acquire about as kids, and many want to see when visiting national parks and lakes. Only is that swimming animal really a beaver?
The easiest clue is the tail. A beaver has a flattened, large, paddle-shaped tail. If you get a practiced look, it is unmistakable. If alarmed, the beaver will slap its tail on the h2o, causing an alarmingly loud smack.
Size can be difficult to determine when you're in the field, when it's just head poking upwards out of the water. But a beaver looks large; an adult tin can weigh 50 pounds or more. They have a roundish appearance when on land.
The beaver's dam-edifice proclivities, of form, are well known. If the animate being is carrying a tree branch, there'due south a good chance it's a beaver. And other sign can offering clues. Beavers champ down copse, leaving distinctive clippings and champ marks. A beaver dam, built of sticks, backs up streams and small rivers. And in that location volition often be a large beaver house, as well built of sticks.
But note this: Other mammals, including mink and river otters, can be found near beaver dams, so just because you see a hirsuite creature nearly beaver action doesn't mean it'southward a beaver.
And beavers in larger rivers often live in dens built in banks, so you may see a beaver only not a beaver dam.
Many conservationists know the tale of the beaver's decimation by the fur industry, and eventual recovery. Beavers are now found widely across the continent, to the betoken they're (often unfairly) considered a nuisance in places. But beavers are essential in shaping rivers and entire ecosystems. For a wonderful account of their important part, and homo-beaver relations, I highly recommend Ben Goldfarb's book, Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Affair.
Muskrat
I have found that this furry animate being is the ane most oft mistaken for a small beaver. There are some superficial similarities, to be sure. But a close expect can make identification easy.
A muskrat's tail is rat-like; information technology lacks fur and is not a paddle. A muskrat is much smaller, it weighs 3 or 4 pounds at most. It looks like a little round fur ball.
A muskrat often has vegetation in its mouth, but it's usually not a tree co-operative. Look closely and y'all may see it paddling around with a cattail or big reed. It does build mounds, but once more, these mounds are built of cattails and greenish vegetation, non tree branches.
Muskrats are often agile and dawn and sunset, but I have seen them out foraging at all times of solar day.
An ofttimes-disregarded aspect of wild animals viewing is the mental aspect. Be honest: you lot probably want to see a beaver more than than y'all exercise a muskrat. So, the starting time thing you take to exercise is make sure your listen isn't turning a muskrat into a beaver. Trust me, it happens.
Annotation that southern Georgia and Florida are home to the circular-tailed muskrat, which looks like a smaller muskrat with, yes, a rounder tail. Their ranges do non overlap. Count yourself lucky if y'all see i; it is an incredibly difficult beast to spot even for hard-cadre mammal watchers.
Nutria
The nutria, a S American species, was imported to the United States for fur farming. Nutrias escaped during floods or were released when fur markets went bust. They are now most abundant in the southeastern U.s.a. but are also found in the mid-Atlantic region and parts of the Pacific Northwest.
The nutria is smaller than a beaver but larger than a muskrat. In the field, information technology looks quite large. Again, focus on the tail, which is hairless and rat-likel. Its fur too looks quite coarse, rather than smooth, fifty-fifty when wet.
The nutria's incisors are orangish, and I have oftentimes found that you can easily see these teeth when the animals are feeding. Most of my sightings take been of this animal on land, enabling a close look at these cardinal identifiers.
In that location take been contempo reports of some other not-native aquatic rodent, the capybara, in Florida. This is the world'due south largest rodent, and can reach the size of a Labrador retriever. Information technology is a spectacular sight to see herds of them in wetlands and along rivers in Southward America. Only let'due south hope this doesn't become some other invasive species established in the United states.
American Mink
The beaver, muskrat and nutria are all herbivores. The mink is a member of the weasel family unit, and it'due south a predator. You will oftentimes run across it running along a stream'due south banks, in constant movement as information technology hunts. Information technology has a distinctly weasel-similar shape, and often hunches its back.
Information technology is a skilful swimmer, but I detect that it rarely swims for extended periods. It volition swim from one bank of the stream to another, then go on hunting along the edges.
It is very weasel-like in appearance, with a slender, stream-lined torso. The tail is furred.
Mink don't sit down still often, unless tearing into a large fish. I have had my virtually rewarding sightings while fly line-fishing along famous trout streams. I'm serenity and observant, and the mink often pass within a few feet. Canoeing is another great mode to observe this species.
River Otters
The river otter, playful and cute, is another favorite of wildlife watchers. How practice you lot know you accept seen an otter and non a mink? The river otter is considerably larger, reaching several feet in length. Its tail is furred simply longer and more streamlined than a mink'south.
The otter'south confront is roundish, near domestic dog-similar. And it is a ameliorate swimmer than a mink. You will often run into an otter swimming for a distance up a river, popping its head out to look in your direction.
Otters are curious, and in protected areas like national parks will often swim closer to cheque you out. They are likewise highly effective predators. Ane of my favorite otter viewing sites is Trout Lake in Yellowstone National Park, where in the early summer they can exist seen hunting and feasting on cutthroats very close to shore.
River otters are another cracking conservation success, with reintroduction programs and clean h2o regulations allowing their return to many parts of the U.s.a..
Water Shrews and H2o Voles
In that location are 2 smaller, and lesser-known, mammals you may as well see swimming in a stream. If you lot think you encounter an aquatic mouse, cease and accept a closer look. You are extraordinarily lucky, and you may witness fascinating behavior. These two species are non closely related, but I include them together as both are quite small and rarely observed.
The water shrew has a pointy snout and preys on aquatic insects and minor minnows. (See my post on shrews for more on these baroque mammals). This is a adequately large species by shrew standards but will still expect small compared to other species covered hither. These shrews take bristles that allow them to skitter along the surface for a short distance. They can as well swoop quite well.
I saw my first one final year, while trout fishing (e'er a slap-up way to see aquatic mammals) along a pocket-size stream. Water shrews are found in the northern United States and Canada.
Water voles look like plump mice. They alive along streams in western N America, where you may exist able to meet their defined trails. They are the largest N American vole, have big hind feet and are adept swimmers. I've never seen one. Let me know if you have!
Any time y'all are well-nigh fresh water, keep an eye out for these mammals. I've had cracking sightings in wilderness rivers and along bluish-ribbon trout streams, equally well every bit greenbelt paths, farm ponds and urban nature preserves.
You lot have a meliorate run a risk of seeing many of these animals today than y'all would have l years ago. Savour them, and support conservation efforts that protect clean water, wetlands and free-flowing rivers.
Source: https://blog.nature.org/science/2021/04/12/beaver-otter-muskrat-a-field-guide-to-freshwater-mammals/
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