Pine Martin The pine marten is small predator weighing around 2 pounds. Males are a little bigger then females. They have a long body that measures 24 to 30 inches including the tail and beautiful golden-brown fur and a yellow chest. Pine Martins eat rodents, berries and nuts. In the winter they will tunnel under the deep snow to hunt. Pine martens are agile climbers and spend much of their time in trees.

The Badger is a medium sized somewhat flat and furry omnivore who belongs to the weasel family. They have a heavy yellowish-gray fur with a white stripe that runs from the nose to the back of its very thick neck. The skin is thick and loose. Average weight of adult males is 24lbs and females average 17lbs and the length is 24-35 inches long. They have short powerful legs and 1inch nails to help dig through the ground to make a home, find food and escape its enemy’s.

The tricolored bat, also known as the eastern pipistrelle. The smallest bat in Minnesota their color varies from yellowish or grayish brown to reddish brown, with the underside being somewhat paler. They forage early in the evening and can catch up to half their body weight in insects each hour. They will forage mainly over water and avoid deep woods or open fields. Tricolored bats eat flies, beetles, ants and moths.

The Beaver is the largest rodent in Minnesota. They spend a lot of time in the water. The nose and ear valves shut when they go under water and lips close behind its front teeth, enabling it to carry a branch in its mouth without drowning. They can remain submerged up to 20 minutes. They have strong jaws and teeth and can chew through a six-inch tree in 15 minutes.

Black bears are the only bears in Minnesota, despite their name they can be blue-black, brown, cinnamon, or even rarely white. They have color vision and have good eyesight. The sense of smell is extremely good, and they follow their nose to find food. Black bears have great hearing they can hear farther then they can see and can hear in all directions! In the spring when the bears wake up they are hungry, It is important for everyone to keep garbage and food source put away.

The bobcat seems to be slenderer than the lynx and have shorter ear tufts, smaller feet that have less fur, and the tip of the tail is black only on the top. It does not have tremendous speed or a keen nose. But it does depend on its great eyesight and avoids detection by moving carefully to locate and stalk its prey.

They are around the same size as a bobcat but seem to be heavier boned. They have long ear tufts, and a goatee under the chin.The hind legs seem longer than the front legs and they have large feet to walk on top of deep snow. Snowshoe hares are the main prey. Lynx do not live in areas where snowshoe hares are absent. Years of low snowshoe numbers very few or no kittens survive.Years of high snowshoe numbers kitten survival is good.Kittens stay with their mother for one year.

There is not much information on Cougars in Minnesota. Because Cougars are very secretive, tracks may be the only thing people see. The tracks are like a wolf or large dog track, but cougar tracks are more rounded in shape. 3-3.5 inches wide and 3 inches long and they usually do not have claw marks, but if seen they are narrow. Encounters are extremely rare. There have been only fourteen verified cougar sightings in the last four years.

Coyotes are members of the Canidae family They have incredible sense of hearing and smelling and can localize rodents under the snow using its ears. On a good day they can catch up to 20 mice in and hour They can run around 40 miles an hour. Females average about 25 pounds and males around 30 pounds. They use a variety of vocalizations to communicate with one another. Howls, yelps, and high-pitched cries.

The fisher is a member of the weasel family. They are excellent tree climbers. The home range is around 7 to 10 square miles and travel day or night. Adult females are only 6 – 8 pounds and males are much bigger weighing up to 18 pounds. female fishers have a gestation period averaging 352 days, having what is called delayed implantation, for several months they are tiny embryos and 2 months before being born they develop into fetuses.

Red fox help control rodent populations Running at speeds up to 30 mph and leap 15 feet in a single bound.They have powerful legs and sharp nails to enable them to dig rodents out of the ground, and to dig dens to raise their family. The red fox has excellent sense of hearing and can hear a mouse squeak over 100 feet a away.. There are different color variations of the red fox, nearly solid black, silver-black and red bisected by dark bands across the back and shoulders (called a cross fox).

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