Sometimes known as the happiest animal on earth because of their faces, the quokka looks almost like a smiling beaver. Capybaras spend more of their time on land than beavers do. Other than that they have very similar diets. They both a webbed feet and similar fur.Īdditionally, unlike beavers, capybaras chew the cud and eat their poop to aid in the digestive process. Beavers have rounder bodies and faces than capybaras. Capybaras are much larger than beavers and have the same head shape as a hippo. Additionally, while you can find beavers on land, you’d be hard-pressed to find a groundhog in water.Ĭapybaras are almost identical to beavers, except for a few key differences. Groundhogs prefer to burrow in large open fields, while beavers build dams in rivers. Additionally, groundhogs only weigh about 7 pounds on average.Īside from their physical differences, groundhogs have a lot of different personality traits than beavers. Groundhogs have short fluffy tails, while beavers have long flat tails that help them swim. While they do have similar physical appearances, there are some distinct differences. Groundhogs sometimes referred to as the land beaver, are often mistaken as beavers. You may also like: Deer Population by State (Estimates and Info) They are much more curious than beavers and it’s not rare to have one swim close by to check you out. River otters spend a lot of their time in the water, which is why they often get confused as beavers. They also hunt fish, which is uncommon for a mink. Additionally, they have a dog-like roundish face. They have much longer bodies and tails than minks. The river otter’s often get confused with minks and beavers. Minks have a long, slender body and frequently hunch their backs. They will swim across the water, but never spend long periods of time in it. Minks are constantly on the move along river banks looking for prey. The American mink is a predator, while beavers are omnivores. While its brown fur often makes it mistaken as a beaver, it is anything but. The American mink is a member of the weasel family. While these can only be spotted while eating, it will help you easily identify the type of animal you are looking at. Like muskrats, they also have hairless, rat-like tails.Īnother easily differentiating factor is that nutria has yellow to orange incisors. However, their fur is much coarser than a beaver’s, even when it gets wet. Once again they often get confused with beavers because of their dark brown fur.

However, beavers are still much larger weighing almost 50 pounds. Nutria is much larger than muskrats weighing on average 15 to 20 pounds. Finally, while muskrats do eat vegetation, you will rarely find one with a tree branch in its mouth. While beaver’s tails are paddle-shaped and scaly. Additionally, muskrats have small, rat-like, hairless tails.

Muskrats are much smaller than beavers only weighing about 3 to 4 pounds.

In the water they look almost identical however, on land, their differences become much more apparent. Muskrats often get mistaken as beavers because they both have brown fur and are semi-aquatic. These include muskrats, nutria, American minks, river otters, groundhogs, capybaras, and quokka. Now that you have a basic understanding of what the beaver looks like, we can identify the differences in animals that look similar to them. They are herbivores and build dams in order to have a safe place to live. They have webbed rear feet and like to spend the majority of their time in the water. Beavers have large stocky bodies with a brownish, yellow coat and a scaly, flat tail. In order to be able to identify the differences between the animals listed above and beavers, it is important to understand the basic characteristics of a beaver. There are several animals that look like beavers, a few of which are often mistaken as beavers, that we’re going to take a look at in this article. However, there are some distinct differences that can help you identify what you are looking at. Is that a beaver? A mink? A muskrat? Out in the wilderness, it’s often hard to differentiate animals that have similar coloring, habitats, and physical features.

Beaver tail