Day three of operation habituation and we saw a beaver mud the dam and swim into his same ‘chewing thoughtfully’ spot for a munch – this time facing us. I have realized something important though. After careful analysis it is clear that the beavers aren’t habituating to ‘us’ so much as we are habituating to the fact that these are different beavers that play by different rules. Cautious and wary in every way, which I think is good for them. They require protection, and quiet – trains not withstanding.
I take comfort from the fact that we are still “In Beaver World” as Enos Mills would say – just a dam different beaver world!
Good news yesterday as we learned that the Alhambra Valley Band will still be playing the opening for the festival, and our grant was recommended by the city manger to receive 1000 dollars towards the mural. The council voted last night and I’m going to assume we’re good to go. (I had asked for two thousand but, hey I’m pretty happy to think that the city of Martinez will be paying for Mario Alfaro to paint beavers after forcing him to paint over them before.)
For the study, researchers extracted proteins from the skull of the giant beaver belonging to the species Castoroides ohioensis. Using mass spectrometry analysis, the researchers search for proteins, chains of amino acids assembled from instructions encoded in DNA that perform a wide variety of functions in living organisms.
The researchers then detected many samples of collagen 1 in the protein they extracted. Collagen 1 is the most common protein in bone. The researchers also found post-translational modifications, chemical changes on the surface of the protein that are not defined by DNA.
Silly specimen keepers! If they had ever watched the ‘antique road show’ they would have know that the original finish is always more valuable!