Who am I?
Can you identify these Illinois critters?
T. Trimpe 2008 http://sciencespot.net/
I use cattails for food and shelter.
I can eat myself out of house and home.
My naked tail is sensitive to the cold.
Mussels are a special treat for me.
I am sometimes on the menu as “marsh rabbit”.
Do you know who I am?
Muskrat
http://dnr.state.il.us/lands/Education/interprt/wskids.htm
I feed my young at dawn and dusk.
I have a double pair of upper incisors.
I step with my front feet behind my rear feet.
I tuck my young in a coverlet of my own fur.
My fluffy white tail helps me escape predators.
Do you know who I am?
Eastern Cottontail
http://dnr.state.il.us/lands/Education/interprt/wskids.htm
I can produce one million descendants in my lifetime.
I am eaten by almost every animal that eats meat.
My average lifetime is two - three months.
I travel in runways I’ve clipped in the grass.
A single acre of grassland is habitat for two hundred of us, yet
you seldom see me.
My urine is visible in ultraviolet light, which predators use to
find me.
Do you know who I am?
Vole
http://dnr.state.il.us/lands/Education/interprt/wskids.htm