Mountain Beaver Close Encounters!

				I get quite a few contacts from folks who have come across a mountain beaver in their area for the first time and usually don't know what they have just seen. I'm including a few of the previous contacts I've received and will be adding more soon. This page was linked to an article in the Seattle Times Pacific NW section (2/8/09) resulting in some new encounters to share here. Please note that a couple of these really were "close encounters!" Let me know if you have a tale to share too....

				A killer mountain beaver? OK, this one is something that turned up on the internet (8/6/09) and should be examined closely making comparisons against other information found in this journal. The Summit Cheeseburger website claims to have documented the first encounter with "A Killer Mountain Beaver!". You decide...

				Here's an update about another close encounter from Shawn who's earlier blog note is also included afterwards. The photos referenced have been added to the gallery too. Hi Shawn, Great story and great photos! I've had a few encounters like this by chance or when releasing a live-trapped individual and marveled at how non-adaptive it seemed to be for a near sighted, slow moving species to sit vulnerably in broad daylight. i suspect you are right that this particular animal was injured or sick. Alternatively, it might have been stunned by something and recovered to make it back to cover somewhere. Either way, the body posture in those photos doesn't look quite right to me and I don't think we are looking at a healthy animal. We'll probably never know unless you find its body somewhere nearby. That was a good deed you did to safely get it out of immediate harms way without exposing yourself to possible injury. In those captive releases I mentioned, it seems like sudden exposure to bright light and/or warm temperatures can cause a mt. beaver to actually doze off or slow down to avoid physiological conditions they are not well adapted for. Thanks again. I look forward to adding your photos to my journal gallery and updating my close encounters collection with your very good story. I enjoyed your blog and always get a kick when Google kicks up a new mountain beaver reference. Nice to see that your posting got so much attention. Take care, Dale On Jul 20, 2009, at 10:52 AM, Shawn White wrote: Hello there, Dale! You recently commented on a blog post I wrote about the mountain beavers living in our backyard. I wanted to share another mountain beaver encounter my husband and I had yesterday in the street about 1/2 mile from our home. We were returning from a friend's house, and as we drove on a residential street towards our house, we saw a furry-looking ball in the road about 100-150 feet farther down the hill. My husband said "It's a mountain beaver!," and indeed--it looked like it was. However, it didn't move, even as other cars drove by more closely, so we discarded the idea. As we drove by, however, we slowed to check it out and it was definitely a mountain beaver. We guessed it must be sick or hurt if it just sat in the middle of the road like that, and my husband and I pulled off to the side of the road to figure out how we could at least help get the little guy out of the road. We approached with a rigid cardboard-and-fabric contraption that I happened to be carrying in the trunk of the car, intending on using it to scoot the poor little guy off to the grassy berm next to the road. As we got nearer, the mountain beaver didn't move. We brought the cardboard closer to him and he started, turning towards the cardboard and clicking his teeth together in agitation. Eventually we managed to get him to scoot off the road--he didn't seem to be injured physically in terms of his mobility, and we don't know why he was acting so dazed and letting us be so near for so long (~10 minutes). Perhaps he was struck by a car? Or poisoned somehow? The good news is that we were able to take some nice photos of this mountain beaver. I've attached them here for your collection - and please feel free to use them as you wish. When I drove back out of the neighborhood this morning, I saw no sign of my little buddy. I hope he either made it safely home or made it peacefully to that great mountain beaver burrow in the sky! Cheers, Shawn

				Here's a blog note I just came across regarding a backyard mt. beaver encounter. (7/15/09)

				I just received this summary of a high sierra close encounter and added two new photos to the mt. beaver gallery link elsewhere here in the journal (7/11/09). I live in Southern Calif. and just returned home from a series of day hikes based from Tuolomne Meadows lodge. This photo was taken in the afternoon on July 9th, about 3 miles from the Lundy Lake trailhead (Hoover Wildnerness Area). I had crossed a trickling stair stepped stream and what I think might be a mountain beaver, appeared in the middle of the stream. It was completely unaware that I was standing within a few feet from it and it looked like it was absorbed in sipping water. When it did finally see me, it was very startled. It ran a panicked circle within inches around me before retreating back into its streamside burrow. Reminded me of tying a bowlen knot where a fish jumps out of a pond, around a tree and back into the pond again! I looked it up because it didn't seem like the thousands of marmots whose paths I've crossed. It was grey, not yellow like the marmots around Yosemite, and it was shy and addled, not like the brazen marmots around Yosemite. Cute!

				Here's an observation that came in 6/28/09 about a sighting on the Oregon coast. I need to collect more Oregon observations like this. My husband and I were hiking last week on the Oregon coast--between the beach and Hwy 101--near Cape Falcon, but we were actually on the trail to Neahkahnie Mountain--and we saw what appears to have been a mountain beaver. We saw it moving through the underbrush. Then it stopped and looked at us for a short time before it moved on. It was about 10 a.m. Sounds like that kind of sighting is rare, so I thought I would share it with you. Lois

				Sent: Monday, March 16, 2009 9:32:50 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific Subject: Re: possible "close encounter" Hi Mary, You do certainly live in a region that has mountain beaver even though most folks don't know it or ever see one. Based on your descriptions of the whistling sounds made I'd have to say this sounds like marmots who use a whistle sound as an alert. Perhaps there were mt. beaver nearby in those wet wooded areas watching out from their burrow entrances as that whole scene unfolded? Better signs to use for detecting mt. beaver include burrow systems, fresh clipped vegetation nearby, and often haystacks of this vegetation curing before taken underground. We'll have to go with this encounter remaining a mystery for now begging for another visit to search the area more closely. Take a camera too! Thanks for sharing. Dale p.s. would you mind if I add your story to my "close encounters" section on my mt. beaver journal/web site? On Mar 16, 2009, at 10:18 AM, Mary Nordstrom wrote: The Seattle Times article stirred up a question I’ve had since the late 1970’s. I hope you can answer it. We took a group of about 20 junior high students on a hike to Twin Falls, northeast of Everett, near the Verlot Ranger Station. To get there, we passed two small lakes and a swampy area before climbing to the Twin Falls. I stayed with the stragglers while most hiked ahead. All of my hiking buddies were girls and we were having fun talking as we walked. We kept on hearing high-pitched whistles off to the side of the trail. I assumed the boys in our group had backtracked and were hiding along the trail and whistling to play a joke on us girls. We returned the whistles when we heard them, shouted into the woods and laughed. We thought it was great fun that the guys were “out there.” When we caught up, we asked about the whistling and we were assured that no one had the energy to circle back during the hike. They were busy resting and exploring. I was left with a mystery. I was told later that the calls were from Whistling Marmots, which I have accepted all these years, but now I’m wondering if they were actually Mountain Beavers. What do you think? Mary Nordstrom Kent, WA

				(2/27/09) Re: The Wily Survivor , by Carol Ostrom Pacific Northwest Magazine (Feb. 9, 2000) Another close encounter with the mountain beaver About 45 years ago, my husband and I “trapped” a mountain beaver in the carport of our home in Fircrest, WA. Our dog had been barking frantically in the area where we stored our garbage cans. When we went to investigate, we found that Happy was holding at bay a small creature huddled in a furry ball behind the cans. To our Midwestern eyes, the critter resembled a small woodchuck, but we had never seen anything quite like it on our hikes in the Washington Cascades - definitely not a marmot or beaver. There were unusually long fingers and fingernails. Maybe a muskrat? But we could see no tail. Curious, we thought we might be able to identify the creature if we could capture it. An empty birdcage was about the right size, and it was quite easy to pop the cage over the cornered animal, now chattering and threatening to bite. It was time to put on thick leather gloves. To keep the animal happy, we thought we should offer food until we could locate a wildlife expert. Feeding turned out to be a daunting task—there was no sign of a diminished appetite after an entire head of lettuce and half bunch of carrots had been consumed. Since there was an abundant crop of dandelions in our back yard, we then decided to move the cage from plant to plant, slipping the slider out to allow the animal to eat. As many dandelions as we offered were devoured. Later in the day, it happened that one of our neighbors (a native Washingtonian who had worked in the woods) heard about our captive and came to inspect. “Mountain beaver,” he said at first glimpse. No stranger to the man, this almost full-grown creature was definitely a pest, and we should get rid of it as quickly as possible. Reluctantly, as it seemed that there might be pet potential here, we decided to transport and release the animal beside a small stream in a nearby marsh. Hoping that this place would offer an inviting habitat to a creature with an insatiable appetite, we expected a quick exit and disappearance into the brush. To our surprise, we almost had to pry the animal out of the cage, and we left it standing in the middle of the path when we said good-bye. About fifty feet from where we had parted company, we looked back and saw that we were being followed. Our friend was clearly in no hurry to leave us. Each time we quickened our pace, the animal quickened his pursuit. Eventually, after loudly shushing it away and running down the path, we lost sight of each other. Clearly this mountain beaver was an intelligent animal. The aggressive posturing disappeared soon after we began to feed it, and the encounter left us with the sense that a kind of bond had been formed between us. Mary and Fred Pneuman – 02.27.09

				(2/9/09) I thoroughly enjoyed the article in this weekend’s Pacific Northwest Magazine section. I laughed out loud when I pulled it out of the newspaper because I knew instantly what the animal was on the cover. I had a mountain beaver “encounter” a couple of years ago that has become family legend… I am a gardener and of all the plants in my garden, my berries are the most prized. I consider raspberries to be the queen of fruits. So, I was horrified two summers ago to find that the new, green raspberry stalks that were growing in (and would bear our crop for the following summer) were being removed at their base every few days. At first I thought my 4 year old daughter, who also loves to garden and wields a mean pair of pruning shears, had gotten overzealous with her “helping” and had cut them down. After ruling that out, I decided that the lawn service folks must have been careless with the weed whip that they use to edge the yard and so I approached them about the damage. They apologized profusely in broken English and assured me that it wouldn’t happen again, so I thought that was the end of it. One afternoon a few days later I was standing at my kitchen sink doing dishes when I looked out into my yard and saw a small, grayish/brown furry creature scuttling along the edge of my raspberry plants…holding tightly clenched in its little opposable-thumbed paw…a bouquet of raspberry shoots. I screamed and ran outside. The thief stopped and looked at me, dropped its bundle, and ran over the bank into the underbrush. My mind immediately went back to a conversation that I had a year or two before with an exterminator who had given me a brief description of the elusive animals. My husband and family thought I was making it all up (my stepfather’s a recreational cryptozoologist and so there were lots of those jokes going around). I knew what I saw though, and my suspicions were confirmed when I starting looking for more information on mountain beavers online. I promptly apologized to the lawn service guys, learned how to install an electric fence and we are finally expecting a bumper crop of raspberries this summer. I have been moderately obsessed with mountain beavers ever since. So I really got a kick out of the article on Sunday. Thanks!! Sure, no problem including it on the website. I forgot to add one other funny tidbit. The mountain beaver gets blamed now for ANY unclaimed or unexplained damage or naughtiness in our house now. When I was growing up, we always used to blame stuff like that on a mythical troublemaker we called “skruben”…now it’s the mountain beaver. Anne, Seattle

(2/8/09) Hi, after reading the story in the Seattle Times, I think I solved an old mystery. A couple years ago, I was mushroom hunting in Discovery Park in Seattle, near the Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center. Underneath a row of cedars was this fuzzy thing 'chumbling' along. I could tell it couldn't see very well, but when it did take notice of me, it just paused and kept going. It wasn't a rat, and moved slower than a woodchuck or marmot. I'm pretty sure it was what you're describing! Kind of surprising to run across one in such a busy park. Thanks for the site!
Rob
(p.s. from Dale. Rob had several other close mt. beaver photos "butt" I liked this one best).

(2/8/09) I just read an article about Mountain Beavers in the Seattle Times Northwest Magazine and found it interesting. I then googled Mountain Beaver and found your site. I'm hoping that you can shed some light on my experience
Last summer I had a critter on the patio that I hadn't seen before. At first I thought it was a mole however its black and white coloring and longer hair changed my mind.
I've tried to find someone that could tell me what it is. It resembles a Guinea Pig more than anything and I wonder if it could be one that had been a pet that was turned loose.
Do you think it's possibly a young Mountain Beaver? I live in rural King County, Wa between Black Diamond and Auburn. There is a natural pond that joins our property and we have a natural area in our yard that has trees and natural undergrowth.
Your opinion would be appreciated.
Sincerely,
Tedd McGraw
(p.s. from Dale: Yes it is a mountain beaver, I have a number of records of "piebald" (spotted or patched, especially in black and white) colorations in the greater Seattle area)

				(2/8/09) Mr. Steele - I enjoyed your web site about Mt. Beaver encounters & wanted to add my experience. About 50 years when I was about 10 years old I lived in Seattle on the west shore of Lake Washington just north of Sand Point Naval Air station, now Magnuson Park. I was out exploring a large wooded area about 6 blocks south by Mathews Beach, which was then Mathews farm, when I found a brown furry animal along a tiny stream. It wasn't at all afraid of me & didn't run away. Somehow I found & cardboard box, picked up the animal, put it in the box & carried it home. When my dad saw it he new immediately it was a Mt. Beaver, he'd grown up in Tacoma & must have encountered them as a child. It continued to be very passive, stayed in the box so my dad & I returned it to the steam where I found it. The article in the Pacific Northwest magazine is the first time I've seen one since. Chris Morrell La Conner WA

				(2/8/09) I saw the Seattle Times article this morning and visited your website. I had my one and only encounter with a mountain beaver about 20 years ago on Scouter's Mountain, a Boy Scout facility southeast of Portland, OR. As I was walking up the trail I saw this large rodent with a large clump of ferns in his mouth right in front of me. I followed him for a while, until he went into his burrow. I was confused as to what kind of mammal this was, until someone told me it was a mountain beaver. Until I read the Times article this morning I erroneously thought mountain beavers were nutria. Thanks for the information on your web site. Edward

				What a great website! My brother-in-law was recently doing a good deed for some neighbors who live along Schooner Creek near Lincoln City, OR, and had to crawl under their old house. Armed with a flashlight and a screwdriver, he came face-to-face with a long-dead and petrified "Boomer" as Mountain Beaver are commonly called here. (I confirmed this with the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Department.) In my search on line for information about Boomers, I found nothing. Guessing Nutria, I found information that led me to make inquiries to OFWD, and they told me about Mountain Beaver. I have also heard these critters referred to here as Land Beavers. I guess their range is extending farther South that commonly believed. Have you ever heard the moniker "Boomer" before for these animals?

				Hi Dale, it's okay to use the story I sent earlier on your close encounters section. The information I got from the OR Fish & Wildlife guy was that the range of Mountain Beaver was essentially Washington and Oregon from the coast to the Western slopes of the Cascades, with a little incursion into adjacent areas of B.C and Northern California. Your site and others I read talk about the different populations such as the Point Arena and the ones observed in Mono County. I guess they may be subspecies, though, while the Oregon population is the simple aplodontia rufa, without any other Latin words appended. I find it all extremely interesting. Thanks for confirming the "boomer" handle. Jim Stovall, Neotsu, OR

				I took this picture 10/21 on the bank of the Skykomish river near Monroe WA. I was told it is a groundhog, but was wondering if it is. It appeared to be about 15 or 16 in. long and didn't go far from its burrow. The color is dark grey. It was darting in and out of a large hole and grabbing weeds and leaves (it really liked the dandelions). Today I think I saw a smaller one. Thanks for any info you can give me. Thanks for responding to my inquiry. The picture you sent sure looks like what I saw, but I didn't see it on the Olympic Penn. We are currently parked in our RV in an RV park on the banks of the Skykomish River just SE of Monroe WA in Snohomish Co. - about 30+ mile NE of Seattle. Quite a ways from the Olympic Penn. I took the pictures(walking) (peeking) out of my window- The burrow he came out of is about 8 to 10" and only about 10 foot from the back of our RV. Do you think it really is a Mountain Beaver even though we're not any where near the Penn.?

				Feel free to use the photos. I took several, but those are the best (not bad considering I took them thru the window.) I didn't want to go outside - I didn't want to scare him. I'm sure I saw a smaller one yesterday - running near the trailer next to us - again in broad daylight. I read some of your website after I emailed you and will look at it some more later. After reading about them, I realized it probably was sort of unusual to be able to see it that closely during the day. They sound as mean as possums - guess I won't go poking around in his burrow-I'll just keep the camera handy.Ê Earlier the same day, I was lucky enough to spot a huge bald eagle at the top of a huge cedar tree - I got some great photos of him too. We see them fishing here in the river quite often. It's an interesting place to stay. Randy and Peggy

				I found your website on these little guys the most useful in identifying what I saw in my backyard. I live in Redmond, Washington about a mile from the first Microsoft campus. I also live about a mile from a very large (don't know the acreage) natural park that is by Lake Sammamish. This subdivision has a sizable green belt area so my backyard is natural with huge Western Red Cedar and Western Hemlocks. The green belt is a steep ravine with lots of very loose soil, nettles, bracken fern and salal. A stream runs through it also. We have barred owls, coyote, deer, frogs, pileated woodpeckers and a great assortment of other birds. I was pruning some salal in my yard when I heard lots of rustling in a nearby salal loaded with berries. I thought spotted towhee since they make considerable noise in the bushes, then no maybe a squirrel, but that didn't fit either. Much to my surprise I watched this critter climb a rotten stump that has a salal plant growing out of it. I had never seen anything like it. I like to identify everything, so I know the birds and animals that visit. I couldn't figure out what this was. It rummaged around in the salal eating berries like they were going out of style! It sort of climbed, half fell back to the ground and was coming toward me through the salal when a frog croaked and scared it. It didn't go far before all was quiet. I saw mountain beaver in my Pacific Northwest books, but the drawings were not good and the descriptions were not great either. It wasn't until I found your website with the great pictures that I confirmed that this was what I saw. The picture of the baby looked exactly like what I saw. What fun to see this little guy and so cute! Happy mountain beaver research and thanks for the info! Susan (8/17/02)

				Here is another Mt. Beaver story from Redmond, Wa. I was only able to make a positive ID by reading your Web page, the information you present there left little doubt (after reading the Close Encounter posting by Dan Plute I am now certain of my 'encounter'...as you will see my situation is very similar). I was spray painting some furniture in my garage one evening after dark. My dad, who was helping me, noticed a large rodent slowly walking down my front steps and pointed it out to me. I walked out of my garage and approached the critter just as it had reached the driveway...it looked back at me and then continued slowly on down the driveway. I continued to follow. When the little guy reached the middle of the street in front of my house I stopped on the sidewalk and I stood there trying to figure out what I was looking at. Well, about this time the critter decided he had had enough of my attention so he turned around and hissed at me (which surprised me) and then with no further warning he just charged after me as fast as his little legs could carry him. So with the combination of surprise, adrenalin, paint thinner (which was on the bottoms of my Teva sandals), and the wet sidewalk (it was lightly raining) I attempted to run, but wound up on the ground. However with the thought of that little guy chomping down on my exposed toes I was up and running in no time. I ran about 10 yards down the walk and then looked back to see my buddy charging after me STILL at full speed. Now my dad, who was watching this whole thing from my drive (laughing hysterically) was able to get to the garage and grab a shovel and run to my defense. Once he had ran a little way down the walk (shovel in hand) the critter stopped (between us) hissed again and tore off after my dad (needless to say, it was now my turn to laugh). I think I will leave the end of the story to your imagination. I will say that your page made me aware of the uniqueness of this little creature, but if my kids ever come across one of these guys I bet we'd go through quite a few band-aids. Jeff Hancock (7/18/02)

				Thank-you for posting such an informative web page(s) on Mountain Beaver. I live in Redmond Washington and by chance stumbled across a Mountain Beaver during the daylight and was fortunate enough to have quick access to a camera. It was pretty late in the evening and I went out back to the garage to check on a  project. My drive at the garage is 40 feet wide and raw gravel. As I approached the  garage I noticed the critter about 15 feet to my right, right in the middle of all  that gravel. He took me by surprise as I had never seen one before. "Whoa critter" I  said, "what the heck are you"? He just kept his head down and waddled his way right  for me. When he got to within 5 feet I began to wonder if he was sick or something  because he seemed so task oriented (here to there) and it was appear that I wasn't  going to stop him. I leaned down to get a closer look and he looked up, hissed, and lunged at me a well as his tiny legs could. This was too odd to pass up so into the house I went for the camera. By the time I got back he had waddled his way into the greenery and as I tried to stick the camera in his face he again disapproved by hissing and lunging at me! I wondered who is this  brave little guy that wants so badly to get from here to there that even a 6 foot human can't stay him from his course...... Here are the 3 snaps I took before the batteries went dead in my camera. You are welcome to do anything you like with them. Dan Plute (6/30/02) close up #1 close up #2 close up #3

				Thanks for putting up such a fantastic website - you helped me solve a mystery! I was downright giddy when I found out that this bizarre creature we saw two nights  ago was your mountain beaver!! This was in the woods in Quilcene, WA around 1:00 a.m., looked to be about 2 pounds, seemed disoriented but now I understand it's because they're hard-of-seeing (is that a term?!). I can't tell you how excited I was to see a mammal  that I couldn't remotely identify. "A tailless muskrat" was the closest I could come up  with, but that was only for the sake of trying to describe it to someone. We just watched him for a few minutes, then let him go his way. that was so cool!!!!!! -Linda (6/30/02)

				Hi Dale, I live in Brier, WA, a small town on the north end of Lake Washington, outside of Seattle. On Saturday morning, about 10:00 AM, I saw a small creature running up my driveway and thought that it was an escaped guinea pig; it was about the same size and overall configuration. I took my 2-1/2 year old daughter out to see it and managed to trap it under a plastic milk case. I had no idea what I had caught so I dragged my neighbor out and showed it to him and he told me that it was a baby mountain beaver. Since I had never heard of one of these I was sort of sceptical about it, figuring that this was a local name for a woodchuck or groundhog. I asked at work this morning and lo and behold, mountain beavers really do exist and it was suggested that I look on the web. Which obviously I did. Although we live in town and on the edge of a major metropolitan area, our town is small and quite rural We are fortunate to be able to rent 3 acres of overgrown forest and idle filbert orchard. There is a sort of wet land in front with what appears to be a year round stream and several small "lakelets", one cemented, one more natural. In the back, in the forest part, there was a pond this spring but it has dried up now. So it must be a good habitat for these little guys. I was thinking that it was flat, but actually there are gullys around so there must be good places for them to dig holes although I haven't seen any. Peter (7/1/02)

				Hello, My wife Karen and I live on 2 1/2 acres in Sammamish, WA. Yesterday (06/28) she saw an unknown animal in her pumpkin patch. Upon doing a little research we came across your website and have positively identified it as a mountain beaver. This is the first one we have ever seen. Our area is rapidly building up but there are five 2 1/2 acre properties plus an undeveloped 10 acre parcel, that is heavily wooded. Is he/she likely to eat my wife's pumpkins? If so, I would hate to be the mountain beaver! Regards, Chuck (6/29/02)

				We had our first encounter with a mountain beaver the other night and got to see it first hand. Our dog heard it in our backyard and chased it into a clearing (at 3:00 a.m.). My husband went out to see what the dog had cornered and found a grey, husky little fury animal with a round face and short tale.It had long fingers with claws. My husband got the dog to leave it alone. We have the correct vegitation behind the house as you describe in your web page. We knew we had Mountain Beaver because of the holes in the ground in this area. We are at the base of Woolford mountain (Kalama, Wa.) where there is a hillside so filled with holes, we never rode the horses for fear of the them breaking a leg.I just thought you might be interested in this "close encounter" since you mentioned Mt. St Helens.We are within the 20 mile "red zone" of the blast area although not near the mountain. (6/25/02)

				My girlfriend found a mt beaver in her yard, so I was out looking for a place for her to go let it loose. I will have her take it to Mt Rainer up in the woods, maybe in a logged off area. She lives in downtown Everett Washington. (7/2/02)

				(Pay attention to the open skys, you never know what will be coming down....)