Prairie Basin Wetlands of the Dakotas:
A Community Profile
Tables
Table 9. General current use of basin wetlands in the Prairie Pothole Region of the Dakotas by wild mammals.
| Group and Definition | Common name | Scientific name |
| 1. Depends on wetlands
with surface water to complete life cycle |
Beaver | Castor canadensis |
| Muskrat | Ondatra zibethicus | |
| Mink | Mustela vison | |
| 2. Range encompasses >10% of the region; makes extensive seasonal use of wetlands or likely can complete life-cycle in wet-meadow zones | Arctic shrew | Sorex arcticus |
| Masked shrew | Sorex cinereus | |
| Pygmy shrew | Microsorex hoyi | |
| Eastern cottontail | Sylvilagus floridanus | |
| Snowshoe hare | Lepus americanus | |
| Western harvest mouse | Reithrodontomys megalotis | |
| Meadow vole | Microtus pennsylvanicus | |
| Meadow jumping mouse | Zapus hudsonius | |
| Western jumping mouse | Zapus princeps | |
| Coyote | Canis latrans | |
| Red fox | Vulpes vulpes | |
| Raccoon | Procyon rotor | |
| Long-tailed weasel | Mustela frenata | |
| Least weasel | Mustela nivalis | |
| Striped skunk | Mephitis mephitis | |
| White-tailed deer | Odocoileus virginianus | |
| 3. Upland species
whose range encompasses >10% of region; likely cannot complete life-cycle in wetlands, but occasionally seen in or over them |
Virginia opossum | Didelphis virginiana |
| Northern short-tailed shrew | Blarina brevicauda | |
| Vespertilionid bats | (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) | |
| White-tailed jackrabbit | Lepus townsendii | |
| Franklin's ground squirrel | Spermophilus franklinii | |
| Thirteen-lined ground squirrel | Spermophilus tridecemlineatus | |
| Plains pocket gopher | Geomys bursarius | |
| Deer mouse | Peromyscus maniculatus | |
| Northern grasshopper mouse | Onocomys leucogaster | |
| Southern red-backed vole | Clethrionomys gapperi | |
| Prairie vole | Microtus ochrogaster | |
| House mouse | Mus musculus | |
| Norway rat | Rattus norvegicus | |
| Gray fox | Urocyon cineroargenteus | |
| Eastern spotted skunk | Spilogale putorius | |
| 4. Makes extensive
use of wetlands, but range encompasses <10% of region |
Water shrew | Sorex palustris |
| Long-tailed vole | Microtus longicaudus | |
| Southern bog lemming | Synaptomys cooperi | |
| Ermine | Mustela erminea | |
| Moose | Alces alces | |
