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Unnamed spotting

Description:

Long, thin tail.

Habitat:

Kinsey Park Pond

3 Species ID Suggestions

Muskrat
Ondatra zibethicus Muskrat
Coypu or nutria
Myocastor coypus Coypu


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2 Comments

AshleyT
AshleyT 11 years ago

Michael, if you go to suggest an ID and someone else already suggested the same ID, please click the +1 button instead of suggesting the same ID again as it is not necessary. Thank you

Gordon Dietzman
Gordon Dietzman 11 years ago

Daniele and Anna, I think what we have here is not a nutria but a muskrat. Both animals look a lot the same, but nutria, to my knowledge, don't live in Wisconsin. In addition, nutria have a blunt nose covered in long white whiskers while the muskrat has shorter dark whiskers and is much smaller. Because these two animals look so much the same, I'm finding many mislabeled photos on the internet.
See these two sources:
Nutria: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coypu
Muskrat: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muskrat
Again, you'll notice how similar these two animals look.

AnnaSorenson
Spotted by
AnnaSorenson

Wisconsin, USA

Spotted on Nov 10, 2012
Submitted on Dec 20, 2012

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