Beaver and Otter
Mounted By Reimond Grignon
Otters are a common animal in Maine. Their numbers have increased in recent
years. They are now at the point where they are being commonly seen even
though they are somewhat a nocturnal animal, although they do a lot of
their traveling during the daylight.
Both the otter mounts in the snow are world taxidermy competition winners.
The otters shown here on the snow won in the world taxidermy competition in Denver, Co.
Otters are a fun loving animal and romp and play with complete abandon, even the adults will play a good portion of each day throughout their lives.
The picture below shows a mount done for a museum of an otter stealing the brook trout from a fisherman's creel.
An
average full grown otter will measure 40 to 60 inches long. Their legs
are short so the animal stands only 7 to 9 inches high at the shoulders.
The hind feet are webbed and the otter is an excellent swimmer being able
to catch the fastest fish. Fish are the main diet of the otter. Most of
their diet consists warm water species of fish such as yellow and white
perch which are more common in the southern half of the state, but trout
are taken just as well when the opportunity presents itself.
The Otter's spine is exceedingly flexible and he can bend forward, sideways, or backward to form a complete circle. The movements of the otter can best be described as serpentine.
Beaver Mounts
by Reimond Grignon
I mounted this very large beaver for a museum. The animal
is shown as he would be dragging a stick back to his pond, maybe to build
his dam. The tree that has been cut down is part of the display and is
an actual tree that was cut down by a beaver. As you can see, beavers
don't cut trees down straight across like a saw.
Beaver are very plentiful in Maine being located on many streams and rivers.
They flood many roads when their dams back up water at which time game
wardens have to trap these fur bearers and relocate them.
Beaver are marvelous engineers and sometimes build huge dams over 100 feet long and 8 feet high. They can create a large pond flooding many acres of land. Below is another example of a really nice Beaver mount done for a customer.
