Ondatra zibethica
Size: to 14" (body)
Habitat: in and around water
Notes:
Muskrats sometimes build a water "house", like a beaver, although they don't build dams. Common anywhere there is suitable watery habitat.
An assortment of mammals that might be observed in and around the water.
More: Freshwater Mammals ...
There are essentially two choices of weapon for spearfishing: pole spears and spearguns. The speargun is probably the first thing that comes to mind for most readers - conjuring up images of Seahunt, James Bond, and countless other TV shows and movies. Everyone knows what a speargun looks like - a roughly pistol-shaped device that fires a two-foot steel dart. Everyone probably also has a pretty good idea what a pole spear looks like, but an underwater pole spear is a different in form and use from a terrestrial javelin. Rather than throwing it ( which would be difficult to impossible underwater ) a pole spear ( or "Hawaiian sling" ) has a loop of rubber tubing at the butt end that is used to launch it directly from the hand, the shaft sliding through the loosened hand without ever leaving it.
More: Spearfishing - Choose Your Weapon ...
