Mammals of Mount Shasta Other Rodents and Pikas

Aplodontia major. Aplodontia; Sewellel. [Aplodontia rufa Mountain Beaver]

Mountain Beaver
Photographed by Dr. Lloyd Glenn Ingles, California Academy of Sciences

In making the circuit of Shasta the latter part of July, Vernon Bailey and I discovered a colony of aplodontias in some rank vegetation covering a springy place in Ash Creek Canyon, in the upper part of the Canadian zone. A little later W.K. and R.T. Fisher were sent there and obtained two specimens. About the same time they and W.H. Osgood caught eight in Mud Creek Canyon near the mouth of Clear Creek, at an altitude of nearly 7,000 feet.

Aplondontias live in wet or damp places usually overgrown with rank vegetation, and preferably in springy, sloping ground where some of their innumerable burrows and sunken runways are kept wet by the cold trickling water. As is well known, they cut various plants, commonly rank or woody kinds, which they gather and carry in bundles to their burrows, or to places near by, where they spread them out to dry.

In Ash Creek Canyon Walter Fisher found their cuttings to consist chiefly of ferns and willows--the latter carried from a long distance. In Mud Creek Canyon the cuttings consisted chiefly, according to W.H. Osgood, of thimble-berry bushes, mountain ash, and brake ferns--the latter predominating, and in one place forming a pile as big as a bushel basket. The animals commonly live in colonies, but Osgood concluded that is Mud Creek Canyon only one individual, or at most a pair, lived in one place, "though several may be distributed among the branches of a stream."

Peromyscus gambeli. Common White-footed Mouse. [Peromyscus maniculatus Deer Mouse]

Common on all, or nearly all, parts of the mountain from Sisson up to and possibly a little above extreme timberline. One hundred specimens were collected.

In choosing their homes these mice are easily suited, for they seem equally contented among the dense vegetation in damp parts of the bottoms of canyons and among the bare lava rocks and pumice soil of the driest timberline slopes. Some were caught also in the heather meadows bordering the little streams in the Hudsonian zone. At Sisson R.T. Fisher found them rather rare except in damp woods along Cold Creek, where he cught a number under roots and stumps close to the water.

Exceedingly rare, or else of such peculiar habits that it escaped observation. Only a single specimen was obtained on Shasta. It was caught at the extreme upper limit of the Canadian zone (alt. 7,800 feet) on Squaw Creek, August 9, by Walter K. Fisher. Others were secured at Fall River Lake, in the Transition zone, southeast of the base of the mountain.

Bushy-tailed Wood Rat (specimen from College of the Siskiyous)
Photographed by Debbie Harton

Rather scarce. Only four specimens were obtained--two in Mud Creek Canyon near the mouth of Clear Creek, and two high up on Squaw Creek (alt 8,800 feet). Of those caught in Mud Creek Canyon, one was trapped at the end of an old log, the other at the entrance to an aplondontia burrow. Shasta abounds in the kinds of ledges and cliffs usually inhabited by this species, but, except at rare intervals, no traces of the animals were found.

Microtus mordax. Mountain Vole. [Microtus longicaudus Long-tailed Meadow Mouse]

Long-tailed Meadow Mouse
Photographed by Dr. Lloyd Glenn Ingles, California Academy of Sciences

Common in suitable moist places throughout the Canadian and Hudsonian zones, particularly in the heather meadows a little below timberline, where, though chiefly nocturnal, they were sometimes seen in the daytime. Their burrows abound in the heather beds, especially along the overhanging banks of streams, and are so large that some of them were at first mistaken for those of Microtus arvicoloides, a species which does not occur on Shasta. They were not found in the dry forest. Seventy-four specimens were collected, of which only six were obtained at Wagon Camp. Near Sisson Tavern R.T. Fisher caught fifteen along "the wet and bushy banks of a long ditch." They probably reach Sisson not from Shasta, but from Mount Eddy, in the Scott Mountains, near the foot of which Sisson Tavern is situated. Still, it is possible that the two colonies are connected along some of the few cold streams that traverse the Transition zone slopes of Shasta.

Evotomys mazama. Mountain Evotomys. [Thomomys mazama Mazama Pocket Gopher, Western Pocket Gopher]

Fairly common in moist places in the Shasta fir forests of the Canadian zone, where nineteen specimens were obtained. Ten were collected in Mud Creek Canyon near the mouth of Clear Creek (altitude 6,700 feet); seven along Squaw Creek from 6,700 up to 7,700 feet; one at the head of Panther Creek at 7,700 feet, and one at Wagon Camp at 5,700 feet. They were usually caught in traps set under logs in damp or wet places.

Phenacomys orophilus. Lemming-Mouse. [Phenacomys intermedius Heather Vole, Mountain Phenacomys]

Rare and local, judging from the results of our trapping. Only three specimens were obtained--all in the heather meadows along the upper part of Squaw Creek, where they were caught August 7, 10, and 12 by Walter K. Fisher.

Thomomys monticola. Sierra Pocket Gopher. [Mountain Pocket Gopher]

Pocket Gopher (specimen from College of the Siskiyous)
Photographed by Debbie Harton

Abundant throughout the boreal slopes of the mountain, from the lower part of the Canadian zone to above timberline. In the dark forests of Shasta firs their mounds were seen wherever there was enough small vegetation to furnish food, and were commonest along the streams and about the edges of marshy places, where plant life is abundant and luxuriant. Above the line of continuous timber their mounds were noticed on many of the pumice slopes between the altitudes of 8,000 and 9,000 feet. On the east side of Mud Creek Canyon they were seen at 8,800 feet, and on the west side at 8,900 feet. On our trip around the mountain near timberline, the latter part of July, their mounds were found in almost every place where the soil was deep enough for the animals to work; and on the north side they wer abundant nearly up to timberline, both on the main peak and on Shastina.

At Wagon Camp, and thence eastward to Panther Creek, the whole country is honeycombed with their subterranean passages. While we were at Wagon Camp they were unmitigated pests, throwing up little mounds of fresh earth in our midst every day and keeping the ground disturbed the whole time, so that it was impossible to walk in any direction ourside of the marsh without stirring up a cloud of dust. I shot several in camp in the daytime, as they poked their heads our of their burrows, pushing little loads of dirt before them. They throw out the earth so rapidly that it is difficult to observe the process accurately. One appeared to empty it from his pouches, but I shot him in the act and found his pouches free from dirt and full of cut pieces of roots.


Mountain Pocket Gopher
Photographed by Dr. Lloyd Glenn Ingles, California Academy of Sciences

On the higher slopes the winter earth plugs--the cylinders of earth mixed with heather which in winter are pushed up into the snow from the underground passages--remain on the ground all summer, a striking evidence of the absence of rains, for a single hard shower would disintegrate and wash them away. They usually take the form of irregular serpentine ridges; but on Squaw Creek one was found which formed a complete oval ring with radiating cylinders. A photograph of this one, taken August 1, 1898, is here reproduced.

Dipodomys californicus. Kangaroo Rat. [California Kangaroo Rat]

Kangaroo Rat (specimen from College of the Siskiyous)
Photographed by Debbie Harton

Common in the manzanita chaparral on the south side of Shasta from Squaw Creek Valley, near McCloud Mill, up along the road to Wagon Camp, as far at least as an altitude of 4,800 feet, where their unmistakable tracks abounded in the dusty soil. In Shasta Valley they are exceedingly abundant and destructive to grain, according to complaints of the ranchmen. Here W.H. Osggod found their little trails winding about through the sage brush in all directions, and saw fresh tracks in the road every morning.

Perognathus mollipilosus. Mountain Pocket-Mouse. [Perognathus parvus mollipilosus Coues Pocket Mouse, Great Basin Pocket Mouse]

Common in the manzanita chaparral, a little below Wagon Camp, where four were caught in July by R.T. Fisher. But the most extraordinary locality at which the species was found--and for that matter the most remarkable and abnormal place in which any species of the family has ever been found--is a subalpine pumice basin near timberline at the head of Panther Creek, where Walter K. Fisher discovered it and caught two the night of July 18. Later, six more were secured at the same place.

In Shasta Valley Vernon Bailey and W.H. Osgood found abundant signs of some species of Perognathus, but did not obtain specimens. The species is probably , which is common in the adjacent Klamath Basin.

Porcupine (specimen from College of the Siskiyous)
Photographed by Debbie Harton

Apparently common, and yet not a specimen was obtained. Their characteristic gnawings on the trunks of small trees were seen at many points around the mountain, usually in the Hudsonian or upper part of the Canadian zone. They were common among the dwarf timberline white-bark pines on the north sides of both Shasta and Shastina; and in a small forest of young Shasta firs between Mud Creek Canyon and Cold Creek. Near timberline we several times found small trees whose tops had been gnawed in winter when they protruded above the snow. In a single instance fresh tracks were seen in the trail between Wagon Camp and Squaw Creek Camp (by Vernon Bailey). And on August 4 our favorite mule came into camp with porcupine quills in his nose. C.H. Townsend found porcupines in surprising abundance in Lassen county, south of Shasta, in 1883 and 1884, and gives an interesting account of their habits.

Zapus trinotatus alleni. Sierra Jerboa. [Zapus trinotatus Pacific Jumping Mouse]

Fairly common in damp places on and near the mountain. Twenty specimens were collected--fifteen in the Canadian zone in Mud Creek Canyon near the mouth of Clear Creek (alt. 6,700 feet), two near the upper part of Mud Creek (alt. 7,900 feet), and three at Wagon Camp.

One of the most attractive spots near Wagon Camp is a grove of ponderosa pines in which the ground is carpeted with strawberries and scarlet painted cups, mixed with ferns and scattered clumps of serviceberries. The soil, while not wet, receives enough moisture from the little streams that sink into the ground a few rods above to enable these plants to grow in such profusion that they form a continuous meadow--"Castilleja meadow' we called it, from the abundance of painted cups. Here the jerboas abound. We saw several in the daytime, leaping about like frogs in the dense vegetation, and caught one or two in our hands.

In Mud Creek Canyon, W.H. Osgood informs me, they were also frequently seen in the daytime, in wet places under the white hellebore (Veratrum californicum).

Ochotona schisticeps. Cony; Pika. [Ochotona princeps Gray-headed Pika, American Pika, Rock Rabbit, Piping Hare, Whistling Hare]

The original photograph was taken by F. Stephens and the drawing is by W.J. Fenn.

Relatively rare and confined to small and widely separated colonies. During our circuit of the mountain, made near timberline the latter part of July, we saw what we took to be signs of conies among rocks east of Mud Creek Canyon, but finding no more believed we had been mistaken, until the evening of July 24, when we camped on some rivulets of snow water on the north side of Shastina. Here we found a small scattered colony reaching up in the slide rock from about 8,000 to nearly 10,000 feet, and a specimen was secured by Vernon Bailey. The next day we found signs in Cascade Gulch a mile or two northwest of Horse Camp. Later, when camped in the alpine hemlocks on the small west branches of Squaw Creek, we found a colony in the slide rock close by. Conies were afterwards found on both sides of Red Butte and on the east side of Gray Butte, and Osgood heard one near the head of Mud Creek Canyon. In all, 14 specimens were collected.

This species differs in habits and voice from those of the Rocky Mountains; it is less noisy and less often heard in the middle of the day, for which reason it is more apt to escape detection, and its common note, instead of the usual 'bleat,' is a loud shrill eh' eh,' or eh' eh' eh'. It seems to be most active in the late afternoon and on moonlight evenings, and its voice is heard at all hours of the night.


Cony
Photographed by Dr. Lloyd Glenn Ingles, California Academy of Sciences

On most mountains where conies live, their well-known accumulations of plants of various kinds, cut and piled on the rocks to dry, are conspicuous objects. But on Shasta, where I often saw the animals carrying freshly cut plants to their dens in the slide rock, I failed to find a single 'haystack.' In one place a few fresh stems of Polygonum newberryi, with is large broad leaves, were seen, and in another a large accumulation of old brown leaves of the same species mixed with a larger quantity of Phyllodoce empetriformis--apparently left over from the previous year. But the only real 'haystack' found on the mountain by any of the party was discovered on the east side of Gray Butte September 25 by Vernon bailey. It contained Epilobium spicatum, Holodiscus discolor, Monardella odoratissima, Hieracium horridum, Ceanothus velutinus, and two species of grass. The bulk of the material was Epilobium and Monardella.

On the west slope of Goose Nest Mountain, just east of Little Shasta Valley, Walter K. Fisher found conies common in an area of slide rock which extends in a practically unbroken stretch from the top to the botton of the mountain. I have not seen the specimens.