I came across an interesting article today about a research studying the incidence of fur-bearers past and present. It got all my attention with a phrase I’ve heard from Rick many times “Shifting Baselines” which basically means we assume what we are seeing means that’s what we’ve always seen. For example like the wildly crazy people in Wisconsin who insist that the beaver population is BIGGER than is ever been.

The article mentioned a project they are working on with some grad students up in the coast of maine about the now extinct “Sea mink”. Apparently the only evidence of this species now are some jawbones that were found in midden heaps. Just like we found beaver bones in the shell mounds in Emeryville. The mink was apparently very attractive to trappers because of its large size. Having more fur to go around proved its undoing, and even though it had been written about for years. it officially was extinct by 1903.

What can furbearers past and present teach us about future conservation efforts?

NORMAN, OKLA. – Over the years, humans have had a profound effect on biodiversity. Whether through population, land use, exploitation or lifestyle, everywhere people go, they have an impact on the environment and ecosystem services that we all rely on.

This pattern is exemplified by the beaver and its extirpation (local extinction) in the northeastern part of the country, a result of the fur trade industry between roughly 1600-1900. European demand for mammal pelts, such as the beaver, altered life for Indigenous North Americans and shifted thousands of years of traditional harvest practices.

While existing research has given us some insight, scientists hope the eager beaver and its furry cohorts will improve our understanding of the past, and better manage current and future conservation efforts for these furbearers.

Courtney Hofman, President’s Associates Presidential Professor in the Department of Anthropology, Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Oklahoma, is leading a project studying how human management schemes and Indigenous relationships influenced furbearers, specifically beaver, mink and muskrat.

Hofman’s work is the focus of a $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The four-year study uses ancient DNA samples derived from archaeological specimens housed at the Smithsonian Institute’s Natural History Museum and among other museums, as well as samples from modern beaver, mink and muskrat provided by wildlife managers and fur-trappers, to better understand the relationship between people and these animals. The study incorporates a diverse group of collaborators, including the Smithsonian, Middlebury College, the University of Maine and tribal partners.

Hofman said shifting baselines – the idea that as resources decline, each new generation accepts that what the previous generation experienced was normal – often make it hard to determine what should be considered normal in the area of ecological restoration. By extracting DNA from archaeological and historic specimens, scientists can get closer to the truth.

“We can use the archaeological record as a time machine to go back and see how much genetic diversity has been lost due to the fur trade and then think about how that impacts the management of these species today,” she said.

This brought back immediate memories of our historic beaver population papers and hunting about for ecological and tribal evidence of their presence in California. It is just crazy luck that any beavers ever remained on the landscape to allow us to repopulate their presence. They almost went the way of the sea mink.

“Sea mink, now extinct, lived on the coast of Maine. It was larger and probably smellier than the American mink. It went extinct in the late 1800s, probably due to overharvesting,” she said. “The larger sea mink was more attractive because for the same amount of effort you could get a bigger skin to sell.”

Hofman said most of what we know about sea mink is from the archaeological record. There’s not much other information available except in museums.

“We have been sequencing the DNA of extinct sea mink to figure out what this extinct species was and how it relates to the modern mink that live in North America today,” she said. “But there’s a shifting baselines question here because the sea mink went extinct and on the coastal islands where it used to live there’s a great interest in protecting sea birds and nesting sea birds. Closely related American mink from the mainland have been swimming out to these islands and predating on the sea birds living on the islands. Right now, managers are removing mink when they find them on these islands to protect the birds. But there used to be sea mink that lived on these islands that went extinct before our recent memory. Perhaps the sea birds on these islands, instead of being in decline, are fluctuating to population levels when the sea mink existed on the landscape.”

Sara Williams, a University of Oklahoma dual major in human health and biology as well as microbiology, and Elizabeth Austin, an environmental science and earth and climate science major at Middlebury College in Vermont, spent time interning at the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum, where they helped identify specimens for use in Hofman’s project, including the sea mink. They blogged about the experience before presenting their internship findings at the Furbearer’s Conference at Shoals Marine Lab in Maine, organized by Hofman and project co-investigator Alexis Mychajliw. This workshop brought together wildlife managers, fur trappers, archaeologists and Indigenous community members to help direct future research.

Interestingly enough, in some trapper journals I read for our research the sea otter was referred to as a SEA BEAVER. Because obviously beaver just means “An animal whose fur I want”. It’s also interesting because of the paucity of fossil record. People often say there are so few bones or skulls of beavers found in California that this is proof they weren’t native. Obviously being a marine mammal means your bone record is pretty hard to maintain.

This past June, Hofman and Mychajliw attended an archaeological field school led by Bonnie Newsom, a Penobscot Nation citizen, assistant professor at the University of Maine and senior personnel on the project. Newsom has done extensive work on Indigenous archaeological methods, utilizing language experts in her workshops to connect objects to the language.

“We’re using archaeological material from Wabanaki ancestors, so we want to make sure this project is inclusive of the people who lived on these landscapes and continue to live on these landscapes and seascapes,” Hofman said. “We’re looking at the human influence on the furbearers as part of this project, so making sure that those communities are represented is incredibly important.”

The project, “DISES: Cultural Resilience and Shifting Baselines of the North American Fur Trade,” is funded by the National Science Foundation Division of Research, Innovation, Synergies and Education, Award no. 2109168. The project began on Sept. 21, 2021, and is expected to be complete by Aug. 31, 2025. Principal investigator is Courtney Hofman. Co-principal investigators are Torben Rick (Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History) and Alexis Mychajliw (Middlebury College).

Just so you know. the National Science Foundation did not fund our beaver research. Even though I’m pretty sure sea mink never saved water or fought wildfires or improved biodiversity. Go figure. But that’s saltwater under the bridge now. Good luck on your shifting baselines research. Oh and by the way, I know what past generations of fur bearers would tell us about our current fur bearer population.