Here's a strange one ...

It looks a little like a beaver, but doesn't have a paddle tail. It looks like a muskrat, but is way too small. Lacks the webbed feet of a nutria.

So what is it? It's a mountain beaver.

Mountain beavers, (Aplodontia rufa), are not true beavers, despite their name, and they don't always live on mountains. Mountain beavers are the world's most primitive rodent. They have survived relatively unchanged for the past 40,000 years or so, often called a "living fossil."

They are found in limited numbers in the dense underbrush of Pacific Northwest forests, ranging from Northern California to British Columbia.

They like brushy slopes and ravines, particularly those that have been logged or disturbed. And they like dampness, perhaps because their primitive kidneys don't work so well and they need to drink a lot — two-thirds of their body weight daily.

Mountain beavers have damaged an estimated 300,000 acres of commercial coniferous tree species in western Washington and Oregon. The damage period extends to about 20 years after planting. Mountain Beavers cause economic damage by clipping and topping off new seedlings, girdling trees & roots, leading to stunted growth and production losses in forestry plantations.

Found because of a mention at StrangeArk, to an article at The Seattle Times, and more from here. There is a vast amount of information here, including more photos.

Image Source

Beaver porn

(via Mighty Wombat)

A 400-year long wait

Captured on camera as they swim in a lake, drag pieces of wood to make their dens and play with one another, these are the first beavers to be born in Britain in 400 years.

The enchanting scene is a heartwarming sight for animal lovers as the species was previously extinct in Britain.

The 12 baby beaver ‘kits’ – all from the same mother – were born at the 550-acre Lower Mill Estate near Cirencester, Gloucestershire.

Jeremy Paxton, owner of the estate, brought three pairs of beavers – named Tony and Cherie, Gordon and Sarah and John and Pauline – from Bavaria in 2005.

He has spent almost £1million on the project.

He said: ‘I have always wanted to bring an extinct indigenous species back to Britain.

Source: The Daily Mail

First English beaver dam in 800 years

The medieval clergyman and chronicler Giraldus Cambrensis made the last recording of beavers in Britain in 1188. He said they were only found in one river in Wales and one in Scotland. They were hunted to extinction by the 13th century.

In 2007, staff at the Escot Estate in Ottery St Mary, Devon, created a two-acre home for a pair of European beavers with ponds and woodland along a section of the River Tale.

John-Michael Kennaway of the Escot Esate thinks the beavers might have built their dam, the first in England in 800 years, because they may be breeding.

Over recent years, 15 beavers have been re-introduced to England, but these have lived on lakes and had no need to build a dam.

Source: Mail Online

Video: Where's your pet beaver?

Hilarious Molson commercial

Angry beavers frighten bathers

Angry beavers have managed to successfully scare off the locals after taking over a bathing area in Lindesberg in central Sweden.

A mother and her two children could only look on in horror as a beaver went on the attack, biting the children's grandmother until she bled. The older woman was also struck by the beaver's tail and was left needing hospital treatment, Nerikes Allehanda reports.

There have previously also been reports of a beaver attacking a child on the same stretch of water.

"If you're in the water and see a beaver you should watch out. In the water they see you as their enemy and will attack," said Leif Linder, who is responsible for curbing the beaver population in the area.

(via)