https:\/\/soflypnw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/MountainBeaver.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\nSo what is a Mountain Beaver? I’ve lived in the PNW most of my life and had never heard of such a thing. Well it’s not a Beaver, it’s a very unique rodent that is not closely related to any other. Despite their name they are not frequenting mountains but live mostly in Oregon and Washington between the mountains and the coast. A few live in BC and California but they are most common in our area here. They like hillsides and areas with easy access to water as they have to drink a lot of water to survive. They create tunnels and spend most of their time in them and are rarely seen. Mountain Beavers also live alone, they get together for about two months out of the year to mate, but even siblings are known to fight to the death when enclosed with each other. The most trouble they cause is to young forests, they like to eat young saplings so a good place to find them is a recently clear cut area or an area with a recent fire where new growth is occurring.<\/p>\n
And clearly they like to eat my strawberry plants! Being that we enjoy nature, and this little Mountain Beaver seems pretty harmless we have no plans of removing him, maybe next spring I’ll net my strawberry’s though. It would be nice to eat some fresh strawberry’s one of these years. We have not seen this guy since, and from everything I’ve researched we likely won’t but we are honored that he decided to allow us to video and photograph him at least this one sunny summer day.<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nThings to Note:<\/strong><\/p>\n