mountain beaver revisited

[Mike Cleven]

Linda Fink wrote:
>
> The Peterson's field guide to mammals shows the mountain beaver to be from
> the cascades westward in Wash., Ore., and No. Calif., extending only a short
> way into Canada. So you east siders, even those of you who hang out in the
> woods, are not going to find boomer holes in your hills.

Qualifier: except on the dryland side of the Cascades; Terry mentioned
Merritt and Hedley, which definitely are on the leeward side of the
Range, Hedley especially.
>
> Specifically, Peterson's says: "This family of rodents, now restricted to a
> small strip along the western coast of N. America, contains but 1 species.
> It is presumed to be the most primitive living rodent. It has 5 toes on each
> foot, but the thumb is much reduced and without a claw. Skull has 22 teeth.
> There are 6 mammae. Known as fossils from Upper Eocene."
>
> Other stuff:
> "Aplodontia rufa, head and body 12-17 in., tail 1 - 1 1/5 in., wt 2-3 lb.
> This dark brown rodent, the size of a small house cat but chunkier, has
> small rounded ears and small eyes. . .  It looks like a tailless muskrat.
>
> More active at night than during day. Makes extensive tunnels, runways, and
> burrows beneath dense streamside vegetation; in diam. burrows are 6-10 in.
> Rarely climbs trees. Feeds on herbaceous plants and shrubs of many kinds;
> builds hay piles along runways in late summer and early autumn. Home range
> not known, but probably less than 400 yds.

Makes me wonder if I'd have run into them had I been raised in
Chilliwack or Hope instead of Mission (which is on the north bank of the
Fraser just above the SW apex of the Boomer Triangle described by
Terry); I was in the woods all the time and burrows like that sound kind
of familiar.  We _did_ have giant gophers, but everything in the
rainbelt gets big, including the garter snakes and slugs....

MC