Welcome to Manuels River!

Manuels River Natural Heritage Society

There are a number of mammal species that call the Manuels River area home. While most of these species avoid humans and are not always visible or out in the open, chancing upon some of these animals along the trail is a real treat.

Native to Labrador and the rest of North America, the red squirrel was first introduced to Newfoundland in 1963 and it quickly spread across the province. The squirrel is a rodent and is related to the rabbit, mouse and vole. It has reddish-grey fur with white on the belly and around the eyes, and it has black stripes down its sides during the summer for camouflage. The most identifying feature of the squirrel is its long busy tail.

Red squirrels mainly eat nuts, cones, berries and small insects, but they can often be found raiding garbage cans and picnic sites when they live near humans.

A native species of both Newfoundland and Labrador, the meadow vole is also referred to as the field mouse. It has long soft rusty-brown fur which gets longer and greyer during the winter. They average 163 millimeters in length and weigh around 36.5 grams.

Meadow voles are good swimmers and prefer wet meadows and open grassland near streams, lakes and swamps. As it is the only native small mammal prey of carnivores in the Newfoundland, it plays an important role in the ecosystem of the province.

Also called the common shrew, this rodent is the second smallest shrew species in the world. The average length of a shrew is 99 millimeters, and 40% of that is its tail. When they are born, they weigh only 0.2 to 0.3 grams.

The masked shrew is an excellent hunter and hunts mostly at night. They eat a variety of insect species, such as ants, beetles and grasshoppers, and are important predators of insect pests like budworms and sawflies.