Local but uncommon mammals

Finding the silver lining during this pandemic, working from home gives us both a lot more opportunities to walk around Stanley Park several times a day. Increasing our presence in the area increases our odds of seeing new and interesting animals inside familiar spaces.

Starting off with this mouse. We were walking along the edge of Lost Lagoon and noticed it scurrying along the bank and frequently coming closer to the path to feed. While it was initially quite skittish of the camera shutter, it eventually got used to the noise and came close enough for a few nice pictures. There are at least 15+ species of mice in BC and I have little experience with any of them, so tips on this one's ID are appreciated.

 Stanley Park is also home to 6 if the 16 species of bat in BC and we saw this individual soaring around in broad daylight hunting insects from a small copse of trees near the aquarium. We enjoyed a very pleasant quarter hour or so watching it dart around on its hunt and managed to get a small handful of acceptable photos of it, despite its speed, size, and distance. Again, I don't know bat species well so I am inclined to guess it is a Little Brown Bat, but don't know for certain.

Luckily, we keep this species on our money AND there's only one type on the continent which makes identifying this North American Beaver a bit of a slam dunk. We have looked around the park many times for these guys and had zero luck, but just this past week there have been a pair with a convenient routine of coming out to graze between 5 and 7 most evenings, making them far more accessible for identification.

While it is nice to feel that nature is returning to the area as a result of people being less active in the last few months, beavers have been a regular mammal in the park for years and we have seen gnawed down trees on many of our walks. These beavers have a large lodge in the area, but are unlikely to build a damn. Apparently dams are more of a defense to keep unfrozen areas of deep water accessible to them in winter but since Lost Lagoon rarely freezes at all and never for long, they won't need this particular tactic here.