While photographing some Nutria I heard my wife say loudly, “What is that!” I was so engaged with the Nutria that I just kept my eyes on them and just asked her what she was looking at. She then replied, “Is that a bear?” That got my attention so I looked up at her to see where she was looking. She had her binoculars held to her eyes and was looking across the big pond we were at. I looked over to the other side and saw a rather large mammal. I laughed and told her that can’t be bear because it was definitely too small, but I was also a bit puzzled because it was a very odd size. It was a far distance and I needed to get a better view. I don’t carry binoculars so I held up my camera to get a better view with its long lens. I could see the animal’s webbed feet and oval shaped tail which confirmed it was a Beaver.

This thing was huge. This was near Eugene, Oregon, in an area that was surrounded by a lot of residential housing. This wildlife area is actually a popular place for people to visit as there are boardwalks and such so maybe this thing is finding scraps that people leave behind. It was at least twice the size of the biggest American Beaver that I’ve ever seen.

BAM☺︎