Conrad Gessner was a swiss physician in the 1500’s who produced a five volume zoological text. He hired master woodcutters to manage the illustrations for his book but the results were often fanciful. There is a slide show of other specimens at the New York Times website, but this definitely got my attention:
The fierce beaver! I’m guessing that this is a hit at OSU and probably most city councils. The illustration is interesting to me because it has so many details that are accurate (small ears, webbed back feet, scaly tail) but is still so enormously “wrong”! I think this has to be due in part to the way beavers impact the lives of man. They are viewed with a general animosity as they chew down trees or flood roadways. The illustration clearly seems to be suggesting that they are doing this “on purpose” just to challenge man.
Even familiar animals, like the beaver, could offer a monster-like combination of body parts. The English translation of Gessner’s book describes its chimera-like anatomy: “Their forefeet are like a dog’s, and their hinder like a goose’s, made as it were of purpose to go on the land, and swim in the water; but the tail of this beast is most strange of all in that it comes nearest to the nature of fishes.“
I am reminded of the 30 something man I met at the Flyway Festival. He was drawn to the images at our table but shook his head, almost shuddering at what he saw. “They look cute, but those beavers can rip you apart. Don’t go near them. They could bite your arm off. I know, I’ve been there before.”
Being that he did not appear to have a wooden leg, I could only conclude that this was a powerful but inaccurate assessment. We’ve actually spoken to many people who have encountered them in traps or clinics and, while they certainly are not without defenses, generally noone but a willow would call them vicious. This man returned to the table several times, almost scowling at us, as if we were a “defend rattlesnakes” booth, or an advocacy organization for some deadly bacteria.Why would we protect these vicious beasts?
I’m truly not not a Freudian, but sometimes the suggestion of castration anxiety is impossible to ignore.
Hat tip to Beaver-Friend Brock Dolman for the Lead!
