About two months ago, Douglas Hawes was stopped by two men asking for help identifying a brown animal near Los Gatos Creek.

“I didn’t think it was an animal. It just looked like a bunch of debris hanging, you know, because there’s been flooding,” said Hawes. “I looked at it for a while and realized they were right. That’s an enormous animal. It took me a while to sort it out, and then I realized that it had to be a beaver.”

Over the last few weeks, Hawes and others have seen what they believe are one or two beavers in the creek along a stretch from the Camden Avenue pedestrian bridge to behind the Pruneyard Shopping Center in Campbell.

The second time Hawes spotted the primarily nocturnal animal was in late May during the twilight hours.

“I look down at the same place and sure enough, that beaver is swimming around,” Hawes said. “It was just having the happiest time.”

While beavers have been seen in the Lexington Reservoir, the animals are not typically found down in the creek.

Like the Campbell Reporter Facebook page for more conversation and news coverage from Campbell and beyond.

Steve Holmes, executive director of the South Bay Clean Creeks Coalition, said he’s seen beavers along the creek stretch in Campbell—in person and on video shot with a camera stationed where they primarily reside.

Back in 2013, Holmes said he saw a small family of beavers in the Guadalupe River near the SAP Center in downtown San Jose. At the time he was assessing the area for potential creek cleanups.

“We’re down there and looking down from a bridge in the downtown. I looked down and saw a tree had been chewed,” he said. “It looked like someone was chopping it down with an ax. We went down for a closer inspection, and it turned out it was a beaver. Not just one, but a whole family.”

Terris Kasteen, a biologist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, confirmed that beavers were reintroduced into Lexington Reservoir and said some may have been pushed down from the reservoir during the heavy winter rains and subsequent flooding in the area.

“One wandering downstream is not surprising,” she said.

Navroop Jassal, a Santa Clara Valley Water District biologist, said beavers were introduced to the reservoir in the 1990s, and the ones seen in the creek could be from there or possibly from the family of beavers seen in 2013 that Holmes spotted as well.

“The history of beavers in the area isn’t well known,” Jassal said.

The water district monitors certain species in creeks, but does not have an active program for beavers and does not plan to start one, according to Jassal. Instead, it will keep an eye on the fallout from potentially destructive beaver behavior such as fallen and chewed trees or damming. The district would then alert the Department of Fish and Wildlife.

“We would be concerned if it’s damming up areas and backing up the flow of the waterway,” Kasteen said.

Kasteen said a beaver presence in the creek over time could affect waterways and result in trees dying and not regrowing. People are advised to keep their distance from the animals and their habitat.

“More or less stay away from them,” Kasteen said.

Trail users need a keen eye like Holmes’ if they want to see a beaver or detect clues as to where one might be. Homles said he knows the signs of a beaver’s presence. He said bark chewed off trees with the remaining parts exposed is a clue. In some areas, clusters of branches can be seen as preparation for building a lodge.

Holmes said his camera footage shows a smaller beaver in the area, which is believed to be a “kit,” or young beaver, which has led him to believe there could be a family in the creek. The reeds in the Campbell section of the creek make for an “ideal” home for them, he said.

“There’s a buffer with a lot of vegetation, and you don’t have a lot of people going down into these areas. The beaver has decided this is a prime area,” he said.

Holmes hopes to take his footage to schools and show children how important it is to keep the natural habitats in the region clean and sustainable for animals and plants.

“I hope they became creek stewards and realize we need to do our part to keep these waterways clean,” Holmes said.

His footage also captures images of fish, birds, raccoons and skunks.

The rodent can grow to be more than 3 feet long and can weigh up to 40 pounds as an adult.