Mountain Beavers are a bit mythical around here. By “here,” I mean in the general Pacific Northwest and in our actual backyard. They are not a true beaver, but in the shadows, look a bit like a squirrel or chipmunk except for the flattened tail. It is extremely rare to see one because they are shy and nocturnal. So how do I know what one looks like? Um, because Smokey caught, killed, and delivered one to our garage this morning. (The secondary reason Smokes is no longer allowed in the house. It’s much more acceptable to have a decapitated mouse in the garage than the house.)
We know about mountain beavers here because they are the ones that dig little holes all over the Back Forty that are just right to twist an ankle in.
Finding the little corpse made me wonder if this rodent was endangered. Thanks to the wonders of the web, I can give you contradicting information.
Yes. In 1991, California declared a subspecies of the mountain beaver endangered, due to decreased habitats and, I quote, “predation by domesticated animals(cats & dogs)”. Gulp. No information available on it's status after 1991.
No, in fact they cause huge losses to the timber industry by chewing on seedlings in the first 5 years of a tree’s commercial planting. This website gives you several approved methods for, um, discouraging mountain beavers. And here’s our Mountain Beaver,
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