Creature from the suburban lagoon

There's something in Centerpointe's south retention pond and it's not something that I've seen there before.

Augh, dang!!  I even had my long lens with me on Tuesday's dog walk, but he was too quick and I didn't get a shot.  

I did have two other witnesses, though.  Both my husband and our dog also saw him.  

My best guess is that it was either a beaver or a nutria.

Example photo of a beaver, screengrabbed from this page.

Example photo of a nutria.    

The two are almost impossible to tell apart from a distance unless you can get a clear view of the tail, which we did not.  He quickly swam into the culvert that runs under West Walker and was out of sight.

I know what some of you are thinking - how could we possibly have a beaver right here in our subdivision?!  Nutria maybe - they are invasive.  But beaver??

Oh hell yes!!  They are here on the upper Texas coast, and their urban and suburban numbers are increasing.  This is a pic I took a few years ago inside my favorite local park - which happens to be (brace yourself) *inside* Houston city limits.  

If I had to put money on it, I'd bet nutria.  Time will tell.

Time plus evidence.  If it does prove to be a beaver that has moved in with us, we'll quickly see damage done to the trees in the adjacent proposed dog park.  Beavers are small furry machines of biological destruction.  They will exploit any amount of water and any cluster of trees.