two mammals

of course i am making another blog entry based on venture vermont things.

of course.

on the list: photograph two mammals in the wild. identify the full species name and describe its behavior.

i live in an area with a lot of beaver ponds, so it's not hard at all to go look at a beaver (castor canadensis).

i saw this one up on the preston pond trails in bolton. the tail slapping behavior is usually an alarm or warning call and is more likely to be given by the female beaver, since she's the one in charge of the place.




so then on a different day i went to look at another beaverdam, because there's a pond near my house that has a rather impressive set of dams and lodges and i thought i'd take some pictures there, but my plans were changes when halfway across the meadow i came across a young bull moose feeding.

pretty much when you come across a moose (alces alces) your choices are to stand where you are or go back the way you came. moose are shy and slow to provoke, but they are very large and will stomp you flat because as much as they do not like to mess with you, they also are not afraid of you, either, because even if you DID eat that extra slice of pizza, you do not weigh a half a ton and they do.

so this moose was out doing what moose like to do on warm days, which is stand up to their shoulders in a cool beaver pond happily feeding on water plants. when we noticed each other, i stood very still and non-threatening and he decided to exit that portion of the beaver pond by way of a spit of land i did not have easy access to.

i decided it was a good time for me to go home and have lunch.