I’ve often wondered where beaver and otter go when creeks and rivers get out of the banks and stay flooded for an extended period of time.
Do they just hang out on the outer fringes of the floodwaters??

In the bad one in 1993 on the Mississippi River on a state wetland area the beaver built temporary lodges in large pin oak trees in the top till the water went down which turned out to be several months. This question was not asked but the turkeys also stayed in trees and ate what was available. Otters had not been introduced yet or if they had been released numbers were still low. Really don’t recall. Quite a few beaver migrated up small creeks as in 94 I spent some time trapping beaver in areas they never been as well as small ponds

What would a family of rabbits do? Surely they know to head uphill.

Cottontail rabbits stressed out and did not survive. In the 86 flood on the Missouri River I had maybe 20 rabbits on my front porch surrounded by moving water. Tried to feed them but every morning 2-3 would be dead and I would throw them in moving water. By the end of the flood I had 0 on my front porch. I figured it was stress but could have been something different as I look back on it The railroad tracks that bordered the area had coyotes deer rabbits etc in close contact and just stayed there together. I was hauling boats and things up there daily as one of my neighbors was a hog farmer and used 7 boats to haul feed

anything that cannot swim or fly usually drowns

One of the WMAs we apply to hunt on has lost numerous year classes of whitetail deer due to spring/early summer floods drowning fawns.

Grown deer head for higher ground, either by instinct or necessity, not sure which

the beaver and otter hit the high ground. I have seen it many times working heavy rain events on night time patrol. edge of the roads, parking lots, if its higher than where the turbulent flood waters are, they are going to head there.

I saw a coyote moving a pup just prior to some bad weather, I always figured she was headed to higher ground but never will know for sure.

Must be around here when the water comes up really fast that lots of things drown. Pretty common to see dead muskrats in the ditches on a big flood event.

High ground

Beaver will be dang near everywhere. You’ll catch beaver here where there is no beaver. After cleaning out a particular colony in June, and we get a few good dumps of rain in August with some local flooding, another beaver or two will set up shop in the same spot sometimes. High water, they’ll move if they want, not just spring time.

Otter do whatever the heck they feel like……lol.

Once saw a beaver 40 feet up in an oak tree..... figure he settled in up there when it was flooding and fell asleep. When he woke up the water had receded so much he didn't know how to get back down...... took him most of the summer to chew his way back to ground level......

Mostly they just die. Can take many tears for very productive bottom lands to recover. My Beagle club used Busch Wildlife CA for our field trials, and after the floods of 93 and 95, all the predators that moved up to the area and never left. Rabbits are still trying to recover there.