Stumptown Fil's furcast: 6 more weeks of winter

Don't put those hats and scarves away just yet. Filbert the beaver - aka Stumptown Fil - has made his weather prediction at the Oregon Zoo: six more weeks of winter.

Though Feb. 2 is widely known as Groundhog Day, when it comes to furry forecasters, Filbert's care staff (and social media fans) prefer their local beaver.

"Here in the Pacific Northwest, we're beaver believers" said Ali Azevedo, a keeper in the zoo's North America section. "Groundhogs are great, but they don't create wetlands or manage branches the way beavers do."

Filbert made his forecasting debut in 2020, and Azevedo estimates he's been right more than half the time.

"Last year Filbert predicted more winter, and we had a big snow day a couple weeks later," Azevedo said. "Personally, I'm trusting the beaver science again this year."

Meteorology skills aside, Azevedo said Filbert and his lodge-mate Maple also do a great job connecting people with one of Oregon's most iconic and misunderstood animals.

Born at the zoo in 2011, Filbert and Maple have acquired thousands of fans on the zoo's social media channels, where their industrious wood-gathering activities have earned them the title "branch managers." The two starred in the Beaver Branch Challenge web series, which highlighted their impressive log-chomping skills. Filbert is also an experienced research assistant: In 2015, he helped Oregon State University with its Beaver Genome Project.

Though Oregon is known for its beaver population, that hasn't always been the case. In the 19th century, American beavers were hunted and trapped for their fur; by about 1900, they were almost gone from many of their original habitats. Pollution and habitat loss also affected their survival. In the last 100 years, thanks to re-establishment programs and hunting regulations, beavers have made a strong comeback. They are now listed as a species of least concern by the International Union of Conservation of Nature.