Mountain beaver or Boomers or
Ground Bear or Poor Folks Guinea Pig.
About a year ago a neighbor asked me about mountain beavers. He claimed one had eaten the new growth on his rhododendron plants. I thought he was kidding me. I’ve never heard of mountain beavers – sounds just like was being set up for some joke. We have rhododendron plants in our yard also and nothing has been eating them. In fact we live where rhododendron grow wild – the post office we use is named Rhododendron! He insisted that there was such a thing. His wife stopped by and swore she even saw it. I pleaded ignorance and no joke came.
So I got online and did the ol’ internet search thing. And wonders of wonders they do exist and we live in a habitat just perfect for those critters. Our hilly, woody area with plenty of water is just what they need. I’ve even noticed that a few of my plants had a way of being chewed off also but attributed that to deer or packrats. But it may have been the mountain beaver afterall.
The results of my earlier internet search plus some new links are provided below. Enjoy!
“Even though the name might suggest that, the Mountain Beaver doesn't actually belong to the beaver family. It's considered to be a primitive rodent and it's known under a couple of other names, like Giant Mole, Boomer, Aplodontia or Ground Bear.
“In most cases Mountain Beavers have a brown fur, but in some cases they will be blackish or reddish. The tail is short. The weight generally ranges between 500 and 900 grams (18 to 32 oz). The length of a male Mountain Beaver is between 30 and 50 cm.
“Mountain Beavers are usually found in places ranging from the mountain ranges from Sierra Nevada to the coastal area that can be found in the Pacific Northwest. In most cases Mountain Beavers will be met in coniferous forests.
“They live in burrows that have specialized chambers for food. They usually eat ferns or other fleshy herbs.
“The Mountain Beaver breeding season happens during the first three months of the year and each litter has 2 or 3 newborns. Their lifespan is between 5 and 10 years.
“While they can climb trees, they don't usually go too far from their burrow.” http://www.newbeaver.info/mountain_beaver
http://www.opb.org/programs/ofg/segments/view/1400 is a link to a OPB piece/video on the Mountain Beaver. While this piece highlights their destructive impact on forest seedlings, esp. the replanting after a lumber clear cut, the narrative notes the MB are beneficial most of the time.
One of the most delightful articles about our “boomers” is from the Seattle Times, in an article titled The Pacific Northwest’s elusive mountain beaver by Carol M. Ostrum, at this link http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/pacificnw/2008706268_pacificpbeaver08.html
A picture http://professorpaulsnatureencyclopedia.blogspot.com/2010/12/aplodontiidae-mountain-beavers.html
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Sometimes, in life, and even with fun items, we are tested. So for some reason I found link with 10 questions about mountain beavers. So feel free to go the link and see how well you did http://www.funtrivia.com/trivia-quiz/Animals/How-Weird--The-Mountain-Beaver-260647.html
An Oregon high school (Toledo) has the Boomer as a mascot. Here is a copy of their t-shirt design.
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http://dirttime.ws/Notebook/Aplodontia.htm is a link to some great information and pictures
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