Beaver (Animal), by Rachel Poliquin
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Beaver (Animal), by Rachel Poliquin
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With unique fish-like tails, chainsaw teeth, a pungent musk, and astonishing building skills, beavers are unlike any other creature in the world. Not surprisingly, the extraordinary beaver has played a fascinating role in human history and has inspired a rich cultural tradition for millennia. In Beaver, Rachel Poliquin explores four exceptional beaver features: beaver musk, beaver fur, beaver architecture, and beaver ecology, tracing the long evolutionary history of the two living species and revealing them to be survivors capable of withstanding ice ages, major droughts, and all predators, except one: humans. Widely hunted for their fur, beavers were a driving force behind the colonization of North America and remain, today, Canada’s national symbol. Poliquin examines depictions of beavers in Aesop’s Fables, American mythology, contemporary art, and environmental politics, and she explores the fact and fictions of beaver chain gangs, beaver-flavored ice cream, and South America’s ever-growing beaver population. And yes, she even examines the history of the sexual euphemism. Poliquin delights in the strange tales and improbable history of the beaver. Written in an accessible style for a broad readership, this beautifully illustrated book will appeal to anyone who enjoys long-forgotten animal lore and extraordinary animal biology.
Beaver (Animal), by Rachel Poliquin- Amazon Sales Rank: #1910100 in Books
- Published on: 2015-06-15
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 7.50" h x .80" w x 5.25" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 224 pages
Review “Another in the Animal series of handsome, pocket-sized studies of interesting animals and their relations with humanity down the ages. Strong on style and illustration, this book impresses just as much with its content. It’s fascinating to learn just how complex beavers’ construction is and what makes them so well-equipped.” (Scotland Outdoors)“Poliquin’s book is a natural history, an almanac of mythology and amusing anecdotes from the intermingled histories of beavers and humans. Reaktion has produced a library of animal books ranging from Albatross to Walrus . . . and Beaver is Poliquin’s worthy contribution . . . filled with handsome engravings and historic illustrations.” (Literary Review of Canada)
About the Author Rachel Poliquin is a writer and curator engaged with the cultural history of the natural world, and she has curated taxidermy exhibits for the Museum of Vancouver and the Beaty Biodiversity Museum at the University of British Columbia. She is author of The Breathless Zoo: Taxidermy and the Cultures of Longing. She lives in Vancouver.
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Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. You'll see the connection between the Mad Hatter, Dutch Master portraits and beaver infestation of Patagonia. Good read. By lyndonbrecht I like this book but it is not quite as good as others in a consistently excellent series. The book presents a lot of information, but I wish there had been a little more natural history in a couple of places. The chapter on dams could be more helpful, but instead it's mostly what people have thought about beavers, more or less as a trope. Illustrations are excellent throughout, and the writing is excellent. Four stars rather than five for what I think to be slightly lacking content in natural history.That said, this is a good book. After presenting the beaver's evolutionary history and biology (and differentiating between the American and Eurasian beaver), the author has structured the book on four themes, a chapter for each: musk, fur, beaver architecture and what might be called the beaver as ecologist. These are presented mostly as how humans have used the animal, without being as judgmental as some authors are about commodification--perhaps because beavers are resilient and are making a comeback in many areas.The chapter on musk concerns the glands near the anus used by beavers to mark territory (it has other uses). Termed castoreum, the substance has been used as a medicinal, and as an ingredient in perfumes (and still is). The substance is widely used, says Poliquin, as a flavor substitute for vanilla in baked goods. Likely there are some vegan baked goods that are a tad less vegan than consumers think. This is one reason that beavers were wiped out in most of their historic range (western and northern Europe to Iran and Iraq, east to China), the medicinal use.Chapter 3 on fur is perhaps the best in the book. Beaver fur has a unique undercoat that makes excellent felt for hats once hugely popular. The hats kept their shape for a long time and were waterproof. The hats were expensive, and the processing involved mercury, so the Mad Hatter is not just an amusing figure, but call it the beaver's revenge. Those hats in paintings of wealthy burghers by the Dutch Masters are beaver hats.The trade in beaver skins was, as readers would know, extremely important in the settlement of North America, with profound impact on the native peoples and the ecosystem.Chapter 4 looks at beaver architecture, dams and all, not so much from the standpoint of natural history but from the view of beaver as trope, of hard worker in a classless society, as encapsulated in the later phrase "eager beaver". Animals as symbols were important in the literature of the 1700s in particular, although the use of animals in heraldry and as symbols goes back many centuries. This is the weakest chapter of the book.Chapter 5 discusses the beaver as ecosystem manager, a 21st century trope perhaps as much symbol as anything the beaver symbolized centuries ago. This chapter has some fascinating information. North America now has 15 to 25 million beavers, which I would think must be the highest number since the beaver trade began in the 1600s. Beavers were somehow transported to Patagonia, where they are seen as an invasive pest species, and a program to eliminate them--unusually, cooperation between Chile and Argentina--is under way. The American beaver has been transplanted to Europe in an attempt to restore beaver populations, but the American species is more aggressive and is replacing the native species. And, each year a beaver eats about a metric ton of wood, equal to about 215 trees, and if you think of 15 to 25 million beavers in North America each consuming 215 trees the species mush be having a major impact on habitat, apparently under the radar.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Five Stars By Christopher M. Great!
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