Oregon State University Beaver mascot morphs into an invasive rat
When did Oregon State change its mascot?
“What happened to the Beaver?” I asked a friend whose unfortunate lot in life left him a Duck. “It’s all orange … looks like an angry mole rat.”
He smiled condescendingly. “No, Bill, not a mole rat. It’s a nutria.”
Well, of course. I’ve seen enough of them I should have recognized it immediately. Sloping forehead, beady eyes, long whiskers erupting from the nose… and teeth?! Oh my yes, long gnashing teeth (they’re even orange on the outside) ready at a moment’s notice to rip and tear… holes in the mud, roots, grass.
It’s fairly stunning that the lead researcher for Fish and Wildlife in Washington D.C., and a senior scientist at NOAA couldn’t tell a beaver from a nutria, but a disappointed sports fan can spot the difference in a furry little heartbeat,
What in the huddle happened to Benny Beaver on steroids?
Didn’t take long to figure out. We’re apparently no longer a university thanks to a Nike re-branding.
Yes, Nike.
As in Oregon/U of O; or the “University of Nike,” as Jeff Hawkins, the Ducks’ director of football operations, was quoted in The New York Tim-es in August.
Seems kind of like asking the fox to re-design the henhouse. The Ducks get a football center with a waterfall, Brazilian hardwood floors, Italian couches and Ferrari chairs.
We open the season with a nutria getting torn apart by screaming eagles.
Well, I’m not sure the earlier logo looks much more like a beaver. I do prefer it though, don’t you?
To be honest, what I truly prefer is a world where people can identify the difference between an invasive species and a keystone species.
Nutria were brought into Louisiana from Argentina to bolster the fur trade. One E.A. McIlhenny, credited with founding the popular hot Tabasco Sauce, is also often pilloried for releasing nutria into the state’s wetlands in 1938. They now number up to 10 per acre and destroy thousands of acres of wetlands annually.
Wetlands, metaphorically, that are extraordinarily valuable duck habitat.
Habitat, actually, which in Oregon owes a good bit of its existence to … (wait for it): The ever-industrious Beaver.
I’m pretty sure that must be the best sentence in a football article. Ever.
And for those of you that are new to the nutria misdiagnosis, here’s what I wrote about it an age ago.
This is a Nutria
Update: We have done such a good job of whacking the stuffing out of this story that the picture on your right has moved from the number 1 Google image for beaver, to number 2 and now is no longer easy to download!
Experienced and google saavy beaver fans will have seen this picture everywhere on the internet(s). In fact if you do a “search” for beaver images its the number one photo that comes up. (we’re on page three of google images, but moving in the right direction.) (UPDATE: now we’re page 1).
The problem? It’s not a beaver.
For the first time today I really stared at this picture and remembered our beavers and their lovely canine noses. Even photographed upside down or dead our beavers don’t show that much nostril. Was this a Castor Fiber? (European beaver, nope they have dog noses too.) Capybara? (Nope they don’t have webbed feet) Photoshopped anomaly? No.
Its a Nutria.
Owen Brown of Beavers Wetlands & Wildlife set us straight. Nutrias were South American natives and introduced into the United states. Like the Star Thistle we thought was a great idea for growing cheap honey, or the Eucalyptus we bought from the Spanish for growing fast cheap lumber for ships, they didn’t work out so well. The animals turned out to be fairly distructive, and to breed like rabbits. Now there are nutria problems in all of these American states. Oregon fish & Wildlife goes so far as to call them a “Negative Keystone Species”.
The creation story says the Nutria (or Coypu) were introduced by the Mcillhenny Family of Tobasco Sauce fame, who wanted to start a fur trade on Avery Island. A few mistakes later the alligators are a lot happier and we are still dealing with their damage all over the United States and Europe.
Why is this a beaver myth? Because getting beaver confused with Nutria is like mixing up Goofus and Gallant and it happens all the time. People google the word beaver and find a picture of a Nutria, or the details of their constant breeding, or the fact that they harm the environment. I’ve encountered countless forums where people talk about beavers “not deserving to be protected” because they aren’t “native” and only hurt the environment. This is a case of dangerous mistaken identity. Sadly I realize even I have been fooled and a nutria picture is shamefully featured in the “muskrat” images from my second video.
The confusion doesn’t end there. How about this Peruvian Wikipedia page where every single picture of a nutria is actually a picture of an otter? (Turns out “nutria” is the spanish word for “otter”. That’s won’t cause any confusion right?) Or this picture of a man watching a “nutria” that is actually a Capybara? And the youtube abomination of “beavers holding hands” that is actually otters?
Martinez-Beaver fans all I implore you to always look carefully at the photo offered on the internet. Keep your critical thinking caps on when ever you see a beaver photo, and to paraphrase Jerry Macguire;
“Show me the tail!”
There are of course beaver dams with lovely curves that turn to accommodate flow or an existing trunk in the stream. There are beaver dams that snake for miles in undulating waves.
