Range: from Southern Canada to Southern Mexico (with the exception of the United States’ Southwest)

Details: White-tailed deer’s coloration changes with the season—with reddish-brown coats in the summer fading to a duller, grayish-brown in the winter. They are crepuscular animals, meaning that they are primarily active at dawn and dusk. Furthermore, they are sexually dimorphic: only males grow the iconic antlers that they then use to fight against each other with for territory during mating season.

W&M specifics: Have you ever noticed how there is very little low-lying vegetation within the College Woods and around campus? This is because white-tailed deer are voracious omnivores who can stomach all kinds of vegetation including leaves, twigs, fruits and nuts, grass, alfalfa, and even lichens and other fungi. With no natural predators in our area, there are an overwhelming number of deer living on our campus, and they clear cut most vegetation before it can grow any bigger.

Range: throughout the United States

Details: Eastern gray squirrels' pelts are a mixture of a light grey and a cinnamon color, with white bellies. They are adept climbers and often travel between trees within the canopy to avoid ground-level predators. They also have an affinity for nuts (especially acorns, beechnuts, and chestnuts), but will also eat buds, flowers, fruits, fungi, some insects and occasionally bird eggs. With high spatial memory capabilities, they are capable of storing food in little pits in the ground in preparation for the frigid, food-scarce months. Because of this, they are also key seed dispersers.

W&M specifics: As you likely already know, squirrels are found all around our campus. Be wary of our outdoor garbage cans—you never know when a squirrel will pop out of one and spook you!

Range: the Continental United States except parts of the Rocky Mountains, central Nevada, Utah, and Arizona

Details: The Virginia opossum is North America’s only marsupial—meaning that they possess a pouch on their body in which they protect and suckle their young until they’ve further matured. They have a light-colored head, gray body, and dark legs and ears. Their tail is prehensile, with the capability to grip and wrap around things; it’s used as akin to another limb. As opportunistic omnivores, the Virginia opossum is an important seed disperser and redistributor.

W&M specifics: Opossums are finicky creatures who are hard to spot out in the wild. Most often around here, they are seen only as roadkill.

Range: the Continental United States except parts of the Rocky Mountains, central Nevada, Utah, and Arizona

Details: A raccoon’s most identifiable features are their bushy, black-ringed tails and black eye mask. They prefer to live in wooded areas near water sources. While they do not possess opposable thumbs, they have an extra “pinky” finger that makes their hands appear human. They are adroit climbers as well as dexterous, able to easily hold things and pull them apart.

W&M specifics: Raccoons are rarely seen around campus, but if you go down to any of the many streams in the College Woods, you may see their little five-fingered footprints imprinted in the mud along a stream bed.

Range: the Nearctic region

Details: Coyotes are larger than foxes but smaller than gray wolves. Color-wise, coyotes’ pelts are anywhere from a grayish-brown to a yellowish-gray, with whitish throats and bellies. They have large, erect ears and a drooping tail, which can help distinguish them between domesticated dogs. Their prey consists of mainly smaller mammals, such as mice and rabbits, but they are omnivorous and will eat almost anything.

W&M specifics: Incredibly surreptitious in nature, coyotes are rarely seen in general, and almost never on campus. But if you keep an ear out, you may be able to hear them howling deep in the College Woods in the early morning or late evening hours.

Range: the continental United States excluding the Northwest

Details: Gray foxes can grow up to two feet long but weigh relatively little, ranging from 6 to 15 lbs. Their pelts are a pepperish gray along the top and a reddish-brown along their sides, chests, and legs; a black stripe runs atop its bushy tail. Preferring secluded environments away from humans, gray foxes are solitary, opportunistic feeders that will eat almost any kind of meat, fruit, vegetable, or insect, though their diet is primarily composed of small mammals. Gray foxes have rotating wrists and semi-retractable claws that allow them to climb trees, which they will occasionally do to forage for food, rest in its branches, or escape predators.

Range: the continental United States and Canada

Details: An adult’s length spans from 18 to 33.75 inches, their tails and extra 12 to 21.75 inches. Their pelts are primarily an orange-red, with a white muzzle, chest, and tip of tail and black ears, legs, and feet. They are extremely flexible animals—capable of living in a diverse range of habitats including forests, grasslands, mountains, and deserts; they also do well in human-cultivated environments like farms, suburban areas, and even large communities. Their diet consists of small mammals, birds, invertebrates, fruits, berries, and grasses; red foxes living amongst human populations also consume garbage and pet food. A fun fact about red foxes is that they wrap their bushy tail (called a “brush”) around their nose to stay warm when resting.

Range: throughout North America, both in freshwater and marine zones

Details: North American river otters have brown to gray pelts, with a lighter silver underside. Their long, streamlined bodies (2.5 to 5 ft) allow them to travel smoothly through water, along with their flat, muscular tails and webbed feet with non-retractable claws. The river otters’ diet is primarily composed of aquatic organisms, including fish, frogs, crayfish, turtles, insects and some small mammals. They are very chatty creatures—communicating with a variety of sounds, ranging from whistles and buzzes to twitters, staccato chuckles, chirps and growls.

W&M specifics: On campus, they can be seen occasionally in Lake Mataoka, though they are typically concentrated more downstream in the College Creek system.