| I have dark brown fur and a broad flat tail. My webbed feet make me a great swimmer. My favorite food is the inner bark of cottonwood and willow trees but I may also eat buds and fruits. I use my huge front teeth to cut down trees. I prefer young trees but I can cut big ones, too—then I cut off the branches to eat. My family shares a den in the bank of the river. Usually four to eight of my family members live together. We are most active at night. Coyotes, foxes, bobcats and cougars occasionally try to catch us. |
 |
| I’m smaller than a beaver, and my ribbon-like tail is flattened side to side. I have sleek brown fur. I swim in the river or in a pond and I’m most active at night. When looking for food I can stay under water as long as 20 minutes, but I don’t usually stay down that long. I eat aquatic plants, as well as crayfish, fish and other small animals. I make a burrow in the river bank. I usually live alone unless I have babies. I defend my home territory against others of my kind. Raccoons often eat my young. |
 |
| I have wings but I am not a bird. My body is covered with brown fur. I use echolocation (sonar) to catch flying insects like mosquitoes. I skim over streams and ponds at night. During the day I sleep in hollow trees or under bark. When we have our babies, I gather with lots of my friends in sheltered areas like caves or cavities of trees. Sometimes I carry my baby with me as I hunt, but we usually leave them together at the roost. I hibernate during the winter. |
 |
| I jump like a frog with my long hind feet but I have fur and a tail. My fur is brownish on my back, yellowish on my sides, and white on my belly. I like to stay among wet grasses and under willows. My family lives around marshes. I mostly eat the flowers and seeds of grasses and other plants as well as insects. I hibernate for half the year, living entirely on fat stored in my body. Coyotes, snakes, hawks and owls try to eat me. When a predator, or something else, startles me, I take several long jumps, but then I try to hide again. |
 |
| I am small with grayish or orange-brown fur on my back and sides and a white belly and feet. I am the most common mammal in the bosque. I hide in the day and hunt for food at night. Climbing trees and shrubs is easy for me. I eat insects during the spring and summer, and seeds during the fall and winter. I store nuts and seeds in the fall to eat during the winter. Snakes, coyotes and owls often eat me. My nest is always in a hidden place, maybe a bird’s nest, empty burrow or clump of grass. |
|
| My tail, ears and fur are very short. My eyes are small. My front legs are very strong. The claws on my front feet are very long. All of these adaptations help me dig and live underground. I burrow in deep, sandy soil where the trees aren’t too close together. I push the soil that I dig out of my tunnels up to the surface and leave it in piles on the ground. My cheeks have fur-lined pockets to carry my food. I eat plant roots and occasionally a whole plant. Sometimes a coyote or badger will try to dig me out of my burrow. |
 |
| I have long ears and a short furry tail. When predators like coyotes or hawks are nearby I may freeze or I may use my big feet to hop away. I like to eat grasses in meadows or in open patches in the forest. I am often out during the day, but I prefer to eat at night. I line my nest with fur from my belly. My babies are born with no fur, and their eyes and ears are closed. They grow quickly and can leave the nest after 14 or 15 days. I may have three or four litters a year. |
 |
| I have a bushy tail, four slender legs, pointed ears that stand up and a sandy brown fur coat. In the mornings and evenings I yip and howl with my family. I eat whatever I can find, including mice, jackrabbits, ducks and other birds, berries and insects. I roam across many miles of the bosque and surrounding fields. Once in a while, I catch a roadrunner. I make a den in a sheltered place like an old animal burrow or a hollow log. My pups stay there for two to three weeks. After six to nine months they may go off on their own, or they may stay with me and my mate until the next year. |
 |
| My summer coat is reddish but changes to blue-gray in winter and I have a whitish rump patch with a black-tipped tail. My ears are quite large! Males have antlers. I travel from lowland river bottoms to canyons and forested high country. I am most active in the morning, evening and on moonlit nights. I eat leaves, stems and buds of woody plants plus grasses and weeds. I have good eyesight, hearing and sense of smell. These help protect me from predators such as coyotes, mountain lions and bears. When our fawns are born they lie still to hide from predators. |
 |
