Yesterday we went checking on the nearly-nevada beaver dams that we stumbled on by accident years ago. They are located near the Hung-a-Lel-ti reservation off 88. Last summer they were obviously not in residence and the dams were in disarray. This weekend they were in squeaking clean tip-top shape, and footprints were everywhere in the mud.
One of the things I love best about this habitat is that it allows for a series of small dams, I think we counted seven. Two of the most important are curved, like a hot tube. One is curved with its back to the current, the other faces and catches the current. Clearly some excellent designing.
As we were poking about looking for beaver tracks, another track caught my eye. Deep in soft mud, very clear and about as big as a softball with no sign of claws: Mountain Lion.
It was a little startling to see so near the dams. That shallow seasonal creek offers little protection for its engineers, and I could see clearly how beavers do have predators in the wild.
Still, it was a nice shiver to be miles from anywhere, crowded with willow thicket and pinyon pine, surrounded by distant snow capped peaks, and realize a mountain lion walked by exactly the same way as you.
