[DigitalJanitor]

I have seen them alive and above ground only a couple times in my childhood on the OlyPen, and always knew it was a rare treat since they're normally nocturnal. They apparently like cutting thimbleberry branches and dragging them underground. My dad tells a story from back in the day about him and my grandfather working on a logging site somewhere east of Coos Bay up in the hills, and one of them spotted a mountain beaver so grandpa's hat was dropped on it and of all the luck the darn thing was captured under it. Grandpa immediately made it clear that the hat was to be carefully removed and the beaver let lose without pestering it as they had a reputation for fighting back pretty ferociously. When I was in collage I happened to talk to some grad students attempting to do some research on mountain beavers. They said that coyotes west of the Cascades ate quite a few of them (scat studies). They also mentioned that they'd only ever seen one live one in the round in a live trap, and it was so aggressive that in spite of their overwhelming curiosity they let it go right away. Of course I had to let them know that my grandpa would have backed their behavioral observation up, lol!

[davidsherrod]

Mountain beavers are common in my back yard here in Graham. My dogs have tangled with them a few times over the years. Despite their small size, they have no problem defending themselves from my dogs. One time one of my dogs got his face bit and he was bleeding all over the back porch. Here is a pic of one that my dogs cornered against the house on a rainy night.

Mountain Beaver

[DigitalJanitor]

Yeah, they look like a low rent guinea pig, lol.

[Bedivere]

^^Or a really big rat! I saw one swimming down the Little Naches one evening when I was car-camped there. I've seen beavers in the Yakima R. near Lake Easton but not sure what kind they were. They had big tails they slapped the water with when they saw me.

[DIYSteve]

[DigitalJanitor]

[Bedivere]

Do beavers not swim? I dunno, could've been a muskrat. It was dusk and it was definitely a large rodent just kind of floating on the current down the middle of the river (which is pretty small where we were camped.)

[Malachai Constant]

Muskrats look like a small beaver with a round tail. We had them in the pond behind our house in Kanada. Beavers are bigger than you think, not terribly cute, and can be aggressive. It also could have been a nutria.

[glenoid]

Sorry for a slight thread drift...... While living in southern Michigan we would go ice skating on the lake we lived on. When the lake was not snow covered we could see everything below our skates especially in shallower water. At times we would see muskrats swimming below the ice quite far from shore. To catch a breath, they would swim up to the ice where air bubbles had formed and gulp in some air. It was pretty cool.... Water dogs were also quite active in the winter below the ice.

[DIYSteve]

[AlpineRose]

There is a Mountain Beaver that lives in the woods behind my townhome. He's kind of a secretive fellow. Going to echo Big Steve, Mountain Beavers are N-O-T beavers. They live in the woods, so I don't know if they swim or not.

[Bedivere]

[DIYSteve]

[olderthanIusedtobe]

The American robin isn't a robin, it's a thrush.

[Malachai Constant]

Douglas Fir is not a fir.