Trail Cams Placed in a Swamp Capture Beavers and More

An environmental reporter and a photographer teamed up to get some visuals on Oregon’s beaver population, and they got some great ones. By placing some trail cams in a swamp in Forest Grove, Oregon, they were able to capture wonderful footage of beavers (and other critters, too).

Videos by Outdoors

Humans once hunted beavers nearly to extinction, but today, they’re present throughout Oregon’s state waterways. These dam-building mammals are ecosystem engineers, which means they’re important. In Oregon, the beaver is a prominent symbol. It’s the mascot for Oregon State University, and it appears on the reverse side of Oregon’s state flag. 

[RELATED: ‘Magical Moment’: Trail Cam Captures Baby Beaver With Mom]

The Oregonian shared the footage on YouTube, and it shows beavers snuggling and sniffing the camera, a baby deer with its mother, a swimming porcupine, and more.

“The Oregonian’s environmental reporter Gosia Wozniacka and photographer Mark Graves teamed up to report on Oregon’s beaver population,” wrote The Oregonian in its YouTube caption. “Graves set up three trail cameras along a 900-foot-long beaver dam on private property in Forest Grove (with permission from the owner) to see if he could spot the nocturnal creatures. To reach the trail camera location, Graves and Mike Conroy, a biologist with the Tualatin Soil and Water Conservation District, canoed a few dozen feet through a swamp and trudged through knee-deep mud.”

Watch the beavers and other critters on swamp trail cams here:

Header stock image by Shanon Fischer / 500px/Getty Images

Trail Cam Captures Desert Animals Visiting a Watering Hole