weaselly little animals

[darkoshi]

It occurred to me that I wasn't clear on the differences between a badger, otter, beaver... not to mention, weasel, muskrat, mink, ferret...

Badger and Otter - best of friends (video).

Animal Identification Throwdown: Otter vs. Beaver vs. Muskrat

Animal ID Throwdown Follow-Up: Whither the Mink?

Muskrats and beavers are rodents. Most or all of the others are in the weasel family "Mustelidae".

This year, some of the trees by the pond at work have had the bark chewed off near the bottom. So I'm thinking, beavers. Though I haven't seen them.

Comments

[lovelymavka]

Beavers are a Canadian symbol. :-p

[darkoshi]

I'm not sure if I've ever seen any of the above listed animals in the wild. I need to keep an eye out for those beavers!

[randomdreams]

Their range is immediately obvious: trees felled right beside waterways, with the stumps terminating in points, where they've been gnawed away, and if there's enough room, broad pools dammed with the felled trees that look totally unlike any other dams you'll ever see because they are somehow cleverly exactly level at the high water point, with the water pouring over the top along the entire breadth of the dam, and out in the middle in deeper water a huge hump where they live.

Muskrats are likewise particularly easy to spot: a huge lake with a wake progressing across it with no visible source. They swim with just their nose barely above the water, so they're practically invisible save for the wake.

[lovelymavka]

Oh yes. Beavers need to keep filing their teeth they are much like rabbits in that way.

[randomdreams]

When my dad was in high school, people were seriously questioning whether beaver were extinct. They were functionally extinct in Colorado. Now they're everywhere, which cheers me greatly. Kinda weird-looking: if you see one up close, you realize their front teeth are both enormous and a deep blood-red color.
I've met almost all the animals on that list socially, in the wild, except for weasels.

[randomdreams]

Note also interesting are marmots and pine martens. Marmots are ubiquitous around here. They look like filthy badgers. I've never seen a marten even though I live in their range. (I've also never seen a bobcat, lynx, or mountain lion.)

[randomdreams]

I'm also really a fan of conies, aka pikas. They chirp when they see you, like prairie dogs do, but look vastly cuter. Plus they collect shiny things and take them back to their nests, sometimes including things like car keys that people put down, or coins.

[darkoshi]

The marmots in Google's image search results look like giant prairie dogs to me.

Also news to me is that a woodchuck is a groundhog, is a marmot.

[randomdreams]

I had no idea that a woodchuck is a marmot. All the ones I've met were living well above treeline, so they were at best brushchucks.