This Californian is familiar with Aplodontia. They were known as boomers by the
members of the logging community hereabouts. It was worried that the population
in the Point Reyes Peninsula might have been lost in the Great Fire a few years
past, but I have seen evidence that they remain. My husband saw a dead one
(road kill) many years ago in the Sierras. There has been some research about
them recently in the Tahoe area, I think. Will check it out. I'd love to see
one, at a distance. Thanks for the stories.
Our neighborhood is trying to get spring as is most of the Bay Area. The heavy
hail storm a few days ago left our yard bathed in white stuff. The Titmice and
Crows haven't been too happy about it. Even our backyard Towhees are eating
from our suet feeder and more cold and rain are on the way.
Love reading all your accounts on Tweeters. Thanks for all your comments.

Mary in Berkeley




________________________________
From: "Pterodroma at aol.com" <Pterodroma at aol.com>
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Sent: Tue, March 22, 2011 2:40:04 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] RE: Aplodontia

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