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Mountain beaver

Aplodontia rufa · Small game

Mountain beaver (Aplodontia rufa): 300-500 mm body with only a 10-25 mm furred tail; about 800 g. Blackish, very coarse fur with a small white spot at the base of each ear. This profile does not establish whether taking it is legal anywhere.

Check rules for a place and date

Certified rules currently represented in Hunt: coverage in development. This is coverage, not a legal answer.

Scientific name
Aplodontia rufa
Family
Aplodontiidae
In North America
Native
Range
Southwestern British Columbia south along the Cascade, Olympic, Coast and Siskiyou ranges to central California and the Sierra Nevada.
Biology

How to identify it

300-500 mm body with only a 10-25 mm furred tail; about 800 g. [1][2]

Blackish, very coarse fur with a small white spot at the base of each ear. [1][2]

Thickset with a cylindrical body. [1][2]

Field knowledge

Where it lives

Damp ravines and shaded slopes in coastal and montane conifer forest with dense ground cover, often near watercourses. [1][2]

Field knowledge

How it behaves

Mostly fossorial and more active at night; tunnels along stream banks [1][2]

Not aquatic or arboreal, though it swims and can climb [1][2]

Eats ferns and other vegetation and stores haypiles for winter; active through the winter [1][2]

Usually solitary, sometimes in loose colonies [1][2]

Regulatory handoff

Take status not established

North Ground has not established meaningful legal take of this species. That is a gap in the evidence, not a finding that it is protected or that it is open.

Conservation and protection

Geospatial intelligence

Where it is found

Southwestern British Columbia south along the Cascade, Olympic, Coast and Siskiyou ranges to central California and the Sierra Nevada.

Biology

Sources

Every claim above is attributed to one of these published sources.

  1. NatureServe · reviewed 2026-09-30

    NatureServe

  2. University of Michigan Museum of Zoology · reviewed 2026-09-30

    University of Michigan Museum of Zoology