Thanks Jeff and David for sharing a bit of the life history about one of
our widespread and common but most seldom 'seen' native mammals. Aplodontia
would make a perfect candidate for Washington's State mammal although many
gardeners and foresters might disagree. Like Varied Thrush as something
special and unique for State bird, likewise, Aplodontia as State mammal.
[Current and okay species I guess: Olympic marmot (land endemic), and orca
(marine)] *Flashing back to an earlier thread about spelling and caps or not
to cap, note what is and is not capitalized through this message. These
used here are currently accepted as correct! You can google research to
learn why.

About the nettle incident...., I've seen this kind of behavior too. Not
with nettles, although I'm quite happy if they take them ALL (the stinging
variety), rather in my beds of hostas (go through and shear them off like a
lawn mower), and bed of 5-6' high Crocosomias! I so hate it when they do
that. However, what I discovered is that the Aplodontia's generally don't
haul the harvest straight away into the burrow. They'll drag the items up
the bank, 10-20 feet, and neatly stack or spread them, all oriented in the
exact same direction just outside the burrow entrance. At first I thought
they were just too big and cumbersome to drag any further. I've since
learned that Aplodontia's do this to dry and cure the harvest first before
caching away inside for winter storage since if cached underground too soon, it
would mold, spoil, and rot. Cleaver beasts aren't they!

That being said, and them being the utter destructive pest they can be
sometimes, I've managed to live trap (have-a-hart) 14 to date, all but one at
the exact same burrow entrance over the past dozen years or so. I love 'em
as much as I hate 'em. Anyway, should any more captures come my way, I'll
post one for sale to the highest bidder on 'tweeters' :-)) Everyone
should get to know their interesting neighbors that are living right under your
feet.

Richard Rowlett
Bellevue (Eastgate), WA