Mountain Beavers

Have you ever seen a mountain beaver? This is no joke, there is such a thing out here. If you see a six inch burrow hole in the dirt with some cut vegetation stacked around it, you’ve come upon a mountain beaver home.

They are also known as boomers, which is an odd name since these creatures are rarely seen and don’t make any noise. These stub-tailed rodents are not beavers at all, but their soft fur is reminiscent of soft beaver pelt.

I’ve seen them late in the evening or early in the morning before or after the sun is present. They are slow movers and seem to have poor eye sight.

The thing I find most remarkable about the mountain beaver is that they live in a Y shaped burrow. They make a device that is known as a mountain beaver baseball. What it is; is a ball of clay. In one arm of the Y shaped burrow is the tunnel where they rear their young. The other arm of the tunnel is where they store their waste. The remarkable part is that when they are in the burrow they roll the mountain beaver baseball over the entrance of the waste tunnel, and when they go out to gather food, they roll the baseball in front of the tunnel where their young are. This way if an invader comes down the tunnel, they go directly to the waste.