There are many animals that look similar to each other, and to a casual observer, it may be easy to confuse these different animals. However, if you look a bit closer, you can often learn to distinguish between them. Today, we’re specifically going to talk about some animals that look like beavers: muskrats, otters, nutrias, groundhogs, marmots, capybaras, and mink.
What You'll Learn Today
Animals That Look Like Beavers
1. Muskrats
Both muskrats and beavers are covered in brown fur and spend a lot of time in the water. Their bodies have a similar shape and, from a distance, it is very easy to confuse them.
In fact, muskrats share perhaps more physical similarities with beavers than any other animal on this list. These adorable creatures look almost exactly like diminutive beavers, with the exception of their tails and their great size difference.
Whereas beavers have distinctive flat and hairless tails, muskrats have skinny rounded tails that look much like the tail of a mouse. What’s more, muskrats are very tiny–even as adults, they weigh no more than 3 to 4 pounds, while adult beavers typically weigh around 60 pounds.
2. Otters
Both sea and river otters look quite similar to beavers. It is especially easy to confuse river otters with beavers because their native habitats often overlap.
If you were to see a beaver and an otter next to each other, you would notice a significant difference in size and body shape. Beavers are larger and heavier than otters, while otters have a longer, more streamlined shape.
But if you don’t have them standing next to each other for the sake of comparison, it is easy to mistake a river otter for a beaver. Both animals are covered in brown fur, spend lots of time in the water, and have similar-looking faces.
3. Nutrias
Like muskrats, nutrias look strikingly similar to beavers in shape and color. They are also larger than muskrats, weighing in around 15 to 20 pounds, making them closer in size to the beaver than the muskrat is.
What’s more, nutrias have large yellow to orange buck teeth just like beavers do. Though they have many similarities, a closer look will allow you to spot their differences.
Nutrias have coarser fir than beavers do, and their tails are round and hairless like the tail of a rat. What’s more, their back legs are longer than their front legs, which allows them to sit up on their haunches from time to time.
Beavers also enjoy the water more than nutrias do. Though nutrias live on riverbanks and near other water sources, they don’t spend as much time in the water as beavers.
Check out this video to learn more about nutrias:
4. Groundhogs
Groundhogs, also known as woodchucks, look so similar to beavers that they are sometimes called “land beavers.”
Despite this nickname, beavers and groundhogs don’t have many similarities. They are both covered in brown fur and have stocky, rounded bodies, but aside from these characteristics they are quite different from each other.
For one thing, groundhogs are strictly land mammals. They don’t live in water and only venture to the water’s edge for a drink from time to time.
They are significantly smaller than beavers as well, weighing only 5 to 10 pounds at adulthood. Their tails are long, round, and covered in bushy fur like the rest of their bodies, which also makes them easily distinctive from beavers.
5. Marmots
Marmots look more similar to groundhogs than beavers; however, since groundhogs tend to look similar to beavers, it is also easy to mistake marmots for being small beavers as well.
Marmots are covered in various shades of brown fur. They are roughly the same size as groundhogs and have an appearance that is similar, overall, to large squirrels.
Marmots typically live in mountainous regions rather than wetlands, so this is one easy way to tell them apart. If you see the animal in question at higher elevations, it is most likely a marmot rather than a beaver.
6. Capybaras
Capybaras share many similarities with beavers. They are covered in brown fur, have a face shaped similarly to beavers, are excellent swimmers, and eat many of the same foods beavers eat.
That said, capybaras have much longer legs than beavers do, and their fur has a shaggier appearance.
Another major difference is that capybaras are native to Central and South America, while beavers are found in North America. It is highly unlikely that you’ll see beavers and capybaras in the same place unless you are at the zoo.
7. Mink
Minks share a few physical similarities with beavers. They are covered in shaggy brown fur and have small ears and similar faces as beavers.
That said, they are more easily confused with otters than with beavers. Their bodies have a slimmer, more streamlined appearance than beavers do.
What’s more, mink are predators, known for their fierce hunting skills. Beavers will eat some meat, but they are omnivorous and are not well known as hunters.
Mink also don’t spend a lot of time in the water. They can swim to get from point A to point B, but they don’t hang out in the water nearly as much as beavers do.
Conclusion
Beavers are unique mammals, but they have quite a few lookalikes in the wild. Some animals that look like beavers include otters, muskrats, groundhogs, mink, and capybaras.
