A beaver headline appeared yesterday that was so ridiculous I couldn’t even bring myself to read the article until this morning. Now I see it is so thick with misinformation that I just wrote the author. Chalk this up to the “Beaver lies and the lying liars who tell them”, category.
Is the beaver truly nature’s architect or just a ‘dentally defective rat’? — Canadian Myths
The myth: The beaver etched on our five-cent coin can’t possibly compete with more majestic symbols, such as Britain’s lion or the U.S. bald eagle. But the rodent doesn’t just represent an idea of strength and fierceness — it played a role in the founding of Canada.
The beaver may be a buck-toothed rodent but it fuelled the fur trade, and therefore the economy here, for hundreds of years. Still, not everyone is happy with the beaver’s prominence as the only animal that is an official emblem for Canada.
In 2011, Conservative Nicole Eaton told fellow Senators the “dentally defective rat,” which wreaks havoc on her dock each summer, should be replaced with a “polar bear, with its strength, courage, resourcefulness and dignity.”
Beavers have made a comeback, and there are now anywhere from six to 12 million of them in Canada, more than the estimated six million at the start of the fur trade. Many of them are living close to humans, and their ability to build a dam in days, and flood a forest, corn field or cottage creates frustration. There are now so many that an industry has grown up around removing “nuisance beavers,” which account for a fifth of the beaver pelts auctioned off at NAFA.
The entire article has an annoying fur trade focus and is generally poorly written but THIS might be the worst sentence I’ve ever seen written about beavers. The author claims we have more beaver now than we did during the fur trade! Never mind that she’s off by at least one zero at least and possibly as many as six. Never mind that there were once enough beavers to cover every head in Europe. Obviously if it was once written that the continent was in possession of two species, man and beaver, there must have been a TON of them. Never mind that even your fur trapping history books should tell you how wrong that is.
Wrong, Wrong, Wrong.
Patty generously devotes a whole paragraph to letting a trapper discuss the more important things beavers do.
Others defend the animal as “nature’s architect,” a reference to its ability to manufacture an environment that is essential to its survival. They are “one of the fantastic species when you look at the way they modify the habitat,” says Pierre Canac-Marquis, a trapper and biologist, retired from Natural Resources Quebec. “It really takes some knowledge, some intelligence, because it’s a very complicated process,” he says of building a dam out of sticks and mud.
Yes let’s interview trappers and ask them about how fantastic beavers are, because really, consumers are the best judge of ecological value. Honestly, I can’t imagine being given such a big byline and doing SO LITTLE WORK.
But that’s just me.
On to better things, this was posted in one of the Scottish beaver forum’s yesterday. You will quickly see why this mom beaver wants plenty of food for her little ones.
Now I’m off to Auburn to try and promote beaver benefits in the scariest county for beaver in the state of California. Wish me luck!
