WEBVTT - The Remarkable Beaver, Part 2 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:06.840 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:13.000 --> 0:00:15.159 Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My name 0:00:15.240 --> 0:00:15.840 is Robert. 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:18.919 Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. And today we are back 0:00:19.000 --> 0:00:22.320 with part two of our series on the beaver. Yeah. 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:25.320 In the last episode, we hopefully gave you a newfound, improved, 0:00:25.360 --> 0:00:30.280 and reinvigorated appreciation for the common beaver, the world's second 0:00:30.360 --> 0:00:34.040 largest living rodent and a tireless ecosystem engineer. 0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:37.240 That's right. Last time we focused mainly on the real 0:00:37.280 --> 0:00:41.680 life biology, behavior, and ecological role of the beaver, So 0:00:41.760 --> 0:00:44.040 if you haven't listened to part one, you should probably 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:45.760 go back and check that one out first. I think 0:00:45.760 --> 0:00:48.600 that will give you a richer understanding of the stuff 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:50.320 we're going to be talking about today. But for a 0:00:50.440 --> 0:00:54.440 very brief recap, Yeah, beavers are large. They're the second 0:00:54.480 --> 0:00:58.760 largest extant rodent after the capybara. Beavers have iron in 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:02.000 their teeth, perfect fortureing through wood to cut down trees 0:01:02.160 --> 0:01:05.360 and for gnawing off pieces of vegetation. Beavers, of course 0:01:05.400 --> 0:01:09.959 eat vegetation their herbivores, and their diet includes foliage, but 0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:13.280 also the bark and the outer layers of soft wood 0:01:13.360 --> 0:01:17.960 from tree branches and trunks. Beavers, of course build amazing structures. 0:01:18.000 --> 0:01:22.479 They dam waterways to change the characteristics of flowing waterways 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:26.240 to sort of like create ponds and redirect water flow 0:01:26.280 --> 0:01:29.880 and so forth to deepen water channels. And they also 0:01:30.000 --> 0:01:34.880 build these essentially impenetrable lodges with underwater entrances and exits 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:38.160 for their own housing and protection. And these constructions also 0:01:38.200 --> 0:01:42.039 allow underwater storage of caches of vegetation to provide food 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:45.760 throughout the winter. And then finally, we discussed several studies 0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:48.760 of what might or might not be considered tool use 0:01:48.800 --> 0:01:51.440 in beavers. This was a lot of fun, including we 0:01:51.520 --> 0:01:54.560 had a long digression on the so called stick displays 0:01:55.080 --> 0:01:58.560 where some beavers in particular populations. Is not common to 0:01:58.600 --> 0:02:01.960 all beavers of either of the extent species, but this 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:06.480 was documented among some Eurasian beavers in Norway. They would 0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:09.000 pick up a stick and they would shake it, shake 0:02:09.040 --> 0:02:10.600 it up and down while holding it in the mouth 0:02:10.639 --> 0:02:15.400 and forepaws. The researchers believed this was to demonstrate strength 0:02:15.480 --> 0:02:20.000 in order to drive away potential antagonists, maybe other beavers 0:02:20.080 --> 0:02:23.280 encroaching onto their territory, And of course we ended up 0:02:23.360 --> 0:02:28.400 highlighting the most impressive of the stick shaking beavers, a beautiful, 0:02:28.720 --> 0:02:32.040 powerful warrior of the wasteland named Beergit. 0:02:32.880 --> 0:02:34.760 Yes her name, I had to look this up. Her 0:02:34.800 --> 0:02:38.079 name and apparently means power, strength, vigor, and virtue. 0:02:38.520 --> 0:02:39.040 Wow. 0:02:39.360 --> 0:02:42.679 The other beaver in that study that's not as. 0:02:42.680 --> 0:02:44.480 As impressive the second place shake. 0:02:44.520 --> 0:02:48.960 The second place was Froda. Frodo's name means clever, learned, 0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:51.840 and wise. And this is also, like I said, this 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:54.640 is related to Frodo, Like Frodo is like a variation 0:02:54.760 --> 0:02:56.720 of this name that Tolkien used in the Lord of 0:02:56.720 --> 0:02:57.200 the Rings. 0:02:57.560 --> 0:03:02.200 That makes sense. Yeah, While the real life biology of 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:05.800 the beaver is truly fascinating, what actually first got us 0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:10.079 interested in this topic was something you came across, rob, 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:15.519 which was the pattern of deeply off the mark illustrations 0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:20.119 of beavers in medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, just so far 0:03:20.280 --> 0:03:23.839 off the mark in depicting this animal. You wonder how 0:03:23.880 --> 0:03:24.520 it happened. 0:03:24.960 --> 0:03:26.640 Yeah, we got into a little bit and discussed how, 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:28.519 you know, we have to take into account that while 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:31.960 we do have one variety of beavers in North America 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:35.280 and the other variety in Eurasia, you know, not everyone 0:03:35.320 --> 0:03:37.320 would have had direct exposure to it. You have that 0:03:37.400 --> 0:03:40.960 game of telephone taking place about these species depending on 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:43.680 illustrations and second and third hand accounts. Then there's the 0:03:43.720 --> 0:03:48.119 added fact that beavers are largely nocturnal. They live out 0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:53.640 often in very remote circumstances, so the average even observer 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:56.560 may not get to observe them that closely. And then, 0:03:56.560 --> 0:03:59.120 as we'll discuss in this episode, even more there are 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:04.720 additional elements of their physiology that may mystify someone who 0:04:04.800 --> 0:04:07.440 is observing them in the wild or trying to make 0:04:07.480 --> 0:04:11.480 sense of their bodies as the carcass is processed. 0:04:11.840 --> 0:04:15.000 Yeah. Another thing though, is that the Eurasian beaver was 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:18.680 once hunted nearer to extinction. Its populations have bounced back 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:23.760 significantly since then since the twentieth century, but it came 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:26.560 kind of close for the Eurasian beaver, like the hunter 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:28.920 has really got over on them for a while. Yeah. 0:04:29.120 --> 0:04:31.960 North American beavers were also in bad shape, and two 0:04:31.960 --> 0:04:34.479 of the main drivers for this. One of them is 0:04:34.640 --> 0:04:38.720 beaver hats in beaver fur. I'm to understand that the 0:04:39.720 --> 0:04:41.800 beaver hat going out of style helped out a lot, 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:47.320 but there's another major beaver product, beaver derived product we're 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:52.720 going to discuss in this episode that also threatened these species. 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:56.160 So yeah, these are going to be important, especially when 0:04:56.200 --> 0:05:00.080 we talk about a particular detail of various bestiaries and 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:05.280 illuminated manuscripts that show beavers or alleged beavers. Some of 0:05:05.320 --> 0:05:07.880 these are very strange beavers. They look more like a 0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:10.520 deer or a dog, or a lion or you name it. 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:13.719 But at any rate, the main perplexing detail is that 0:05:13.760 --> 0:05:17.040 they are depicted chewing off their own testicles whilst being 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:18.400 pursued by a human hunter. 0:05:18.800 --> 0:05:22.320 I thought we should mention and describe a few of 0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:26.600 these actual illustrations and the manuscripts they come from, So 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:30.159 I came across a post about this on the British 0:05:30.200 --> 0:05:34.040 Library's Medieval Manuscripts blog. I love the British Library's blogs, 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:37.560 by the way, they often are wonderful resource. But this 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:42.240 post is from November seventh, twenty twelve. It's called Beaver's 0:05:42.279 --> 0:05:45.280 on the Run by Nicole Eddie and it includes a 0:05:45.320 --> 0:05:48.600 number of illustrations, a couple that we alluded to at 0:05:48.640 --> 0:05:50.719 the beginning of part one of this series and several 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:53.640 that I think we haven't talked about yet, but none 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:56.480 of which have we featured in detail. So the author 0:05:56.520 --> 0:05:59.520 of this blog post says you can usually recognize a 0:05:59.560 --> 0:06:03.720 beaver in a medieval bestiary, which seemed at first like 0:06:03.800 --> 0:06:07.200 a very odd statement because most of these drawings look 0:06:07.240 --> 0:06:11.239 absolutely nothing like the real animal, not even a little, 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:15.080 But she goes on to explain you can recognize them 0:06:15.320 --> 0:06:18.520 because they are always depicted the same way in a 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:24.040 characteristic or stereotyped scene quote on the run, pursued by 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:27.640 a hunter who is frequently blowing a horn and accompanied 0:06:27.640 --> 0:06:31.479 by hunting dogs. And just as you said, Rob, we 0:06:31.520 --> 0:06:34.279 can add to that image the fact that they are 0:06:34.400 --> 0:06:39.360 often depicted either discarding or in the middle of biting 0:06:39.360 --> 0:06:43.360 off their own testicles while in hot pursuit. Several examples. 0:06:43.640 --> 0:06:46.720 Let's start with one we briefly alluded to in part one. 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:51.520 So this is a miniature from a Latin bestiary originating 0:06:51.560 --> 0:06:54.359 in England from the second or third quarter of the 0:06:54.400 --> 0:06:58.240 thirteenth century. The manuscript is known as Sloane thirty five 0:06:58.400 --> 0:07:01.200 forty four. So what we see in a miniature with 0:07:01.240 --> 0:07:04.600 the Latin text all around is a sort of rectangle 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:08.480 of red background decorated with these three leaf clover shapes, 0:07:09.279 --> 0:07:11.440 and then we have what appears to be some kind 0:07:11.440 --> 0:07:15.160 of big cat, maybe a mountain lion. Compared to the 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:18.360 human and the dog in this drawing, it is about 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:22.480 the size of a horse. Also, it has a horse's tail. 0:07:22.640 --> 0:07:24.480 Did you notice that has like a hairtail. 0:07:24.880 --> 0:07:27.080 Yeah, this does not even look like a fish tail. 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:30.520 As we mentioned before some depictions of beavers, they often 0:07:30.560 --> 0:07:32.520 have almost like a mermaid quality to them. 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:36.280 Huh. Of course, beavers do have interesting unusual tails. They 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:38.920 have the flat tail, which aids them in swimming, but 0:07:38.960 --> 0:07:42.000 they also use for a type of signaling known as 0:07:42.080 --> 0:07:44.520 water slapping, where they slap the surface of the water 0:07:44.640 --> 0:07:47.239 to make loud sounds, and this is used for social 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:51.080 reasons to signal to the to the other beavers around 0:07:51.080 --> 0:07:53.800 them that may be a predator or a rival beaver 0:07:53.840 --> 0:07:56.400 from outside the family group is approaching their territory. 0:07:56.800 --> 0:08:00.360 I will say this about this particular quote unquote beaver. 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:04.720 The posture here with feet back rear, feet on the ground, front, 0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:08.720 feet elevated, and this tail as horsey as it looks, 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:12.560 it is kind of going down and out, which is 0:08:12.640 --> 0:08:16.760 at least vaguely reminiscent of the way that beavers will 0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:20.440 often walk if they're carrying something, you know, with that 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:23.640 tail helping them to balance, and their front legs are 0:08:23.760 --> 0:08:25.080 up helping to carry something. 0:08:25.440 --> 0:08:27.920 That would be fortunate if that was the artist's intention. 0:08:28.080 --> 0:08:30.680 But I think what's being shown here is a horsehair 0:08:30.840 --> 0:08:34.360 style tail like flapping in the wind as the beaver runs. 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:37.280 If it were not for the you know, vulgar error 0:08:37.880 --> 0:08:40.439 as we'll discuss regarding the eating of the testicles or 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:43.120 the biting of the testicles here, this is otherwise, I 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:45.640 think a beautiful image. I like the use of the 0:08:45.720 --> 0:08:48.199 like the red, the like the deep crimson behind it. 0:08:49.200 --> 0:08:51.199 Oh but wait, we didn't get to the animal's head yet. 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:54.880 So it's got horse sized body, horse looking tail, but 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:58.840 with feline paws, and an approximately leonine head like a 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:02.760 mountain lion's head, but also with a snake neck. It's 0:09:02.840 --> 0:09:05.720 kind of a dragon like. The neck is curving around 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:09.840 and it appears to be covered in maybe feathers or scales, 0:09:10.440 --> 0:09:12.880 and the neck is curving all the way around for 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:16.480 the head to reach back and yes, bite its own testicles. 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:19.160 While the beast is in mid spring, it's leaping through 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:23.400 the air and biting while it's aloft. Its front paws 0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:24.200 are off the ground. 0:09:24.559 --> 0:09:26.960 It is a strange image, Jef. You had no background 0:09:27.000 --> 0:09:30.199 on this, you would just think this is a fantastic creature. 0:09:30.480 --> 0:09:33.559 Yeah. Meanwhile, the hunting dog is after it is, of 0:09:33.600 --> 0:09:36.600 course sort of barking, pulling. Maybe is that a leashure? 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:39.640 I can't quite tell. But there's a hunter. Also a 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:42.920 dude standing there looking kind of like a hungover George Washington, 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:45.559 and he is blowing an upturned hunter's horn. 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:48.640 Yeah. All the eyes in this image look kind of bloodshot. 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:51.720 Adds an interesting effect to it. 0:09:52.360 --> 0:09:55.360 Okay, next image for us to discuss. This is from 0:09:55.440 --> 0:09:59.120 a work known as the Rochester Bestiary from England around 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:03.520 the year twelve, in a manuscript called Royal twelve f. 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:06.160 This one is a lot more colorful. Here, the hunt 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:09.480 takes place on a green hill with a golden sky 0:10:09.640 --> 0:10:13.240 in the background and trees that look like asparagus. The 0:10:13.320 --> 0:10:17.000 hunter has blonde surfer hair and wears a blue tunic. 0:10:17.080 --> 0:10:19.640 He really does. It's kind of surfery, isn't it. It's 0:10:19.720 --> 0:10:23.200 kind of Owen Wilson hair. Yeah, and he's blowing as 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:26.640 his horn. He's carrying either a sword or a club 0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:28.640 of some kind in the other hand from the horn, 0:10:28.920 --> 0:10:31.520 The dogs are howling in pursuit. The beaver is once 0:10:31.559 --> 0:10:35.200 again sort of a serpentine lion with the long scaly 0:10:35.280 --> 0:10:38.800 neck twisting all the way back around, biting off the genitalia, 0:10:38.960 --> 0:10:41.800 but with a different face this time. The beaver's face 0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:44.720 here is kind of sad and porky, like like a 0:10:44.800 --> 0:10:47.480 lion pig muttering geez not again. 0:10:49.160 --> 0:10:51.760 Yeah, this is another strange one where the beaver looks 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:54.920 more like a camel or perhaps you know, some variation 0:10:55.040 --> 0:10:56.120 of prehistoric mammal. 0:10:57.280 --> 0:10:59.680 Yeah, now I want to get into some ones that 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:04.079 have more differences. The next one has actually no testicle biting. 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:08.480 This is from an herbal medicine manual called Tractatus de 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:12.680 Herbis from Salerno, which is in Italy, produced between twelve 0:11:12.720 --> 0:11:16.559 eighty and thirteen ten. The manuscript is called Egerton seven 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:21.400 forty seven. Here the hunter is a wizard. That interesting. 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:24.760 He's wearing a pointy wizard hat, and he has huge hands, 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:27.280 one of which is like up in front of his face, 0:11:27.559 --> 0:11:30.240 almost as if he's marveling at the hand, like how 0:11:30.280 --> 0:11:32.840 did my hand get this way? What has become of me? 0:11:33.440 --> 0:11:35.920 Yeah? This image has a kind of childlike wonder to it, 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:39.000 especially when we're describing the beaver. 0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:42.400 That's right, right, So, yeah, the wizard hunter has gigantic 0:11:42.440 --> 0:11:44.800 hands bigger than his head. He's got his horn slung 0:11:44.840 --> 0:11:48.239 around his shoulder. He's about to heave a spear. Interesting, 0:11:48.320 --> 0:11:51.880 I guess there was spear hunting of beavers maybe, But 0:11:51.920 --> 0:11:54.319 he's got a spear like cocked back, ready to throw it. 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:57.360 And then the hunter, the dogs, and the beaver are 0:11:57.360 --> 0:12:00.679 all standing in what looks like a field of spinach plants, 0:12:00.800 --> 0:12:03.840 Like there are these green forking plants interspersed all around. 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:05.640 I don't know if that's supposed to be the kind 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:10.400 of vegetation growing in the landscape that has been altered 0:12:10.400 --> 0:12:13.760 by the proximity of a beaver dam. And then one 0:12:13.760 --> 0:12:18.120 of the dogs is gigantic and the other is not 0:12:18.360 --> 0:12:21.720 that gigantic. And then the beaver is a horse, And 0:12:21.760 --> 0:12:23.600 I mean, I mean that it's not like a horse. 0:12:23.600 --> 0:12:25.319 The beaver is a horse. It's just a. 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:30.040 Horse, Yeah, a kind of shaggy looking horse with I 0:12:30.040 --> 0:12:31.400 believe visible testicles. 0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:34.959 Oh yeah, not just visible. They're sort of in bold 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:38.000 compared to the rest of the illustration, Do you know 0:12:38.000 --> 0:12:41.160 what I'm saying? Yeah, Yeah, they're like filled in a 0:12:41.280 --> 0:12:44.800 darker color than anything else. So the beaver horse is 0:12:44.840 --> 0:12:48.439 not biting them off, but they're just like, they're very 0:12:48.440 --> 0:12:51.439 prominent and they're almost perfectly centered in the illustration. 0:12:52.160 --> 0:12:54.640 Yeah, maybe the dogs got to him before you get 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:58.080 in this narrative, get rid of them. 0:12:58.240 --> 0:13:00.440 Okay, This next one I thought was really fun. This 0:13:00.480 --> 0:13:03.080 is from another English best ear a twelfth century in 0:13:03.120 --> 0:13:07.000 a manuscript called Stowe ten sixty seven. It's not fully colored, 0:13:07.000 --> 0:13:10.160 in just a line drawing. The hunter looks like he's 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:14.000 dancing kind of. He looks, you know, jolly, like he's moving, 0:13:14.080 --> 0:13:17.360 he's feeling the rhythm, and he's blowing his horn and 0:13:17.440 --> 0:13:20.560 pointing a single finger at the beaver with his one hand. 0:13:20.559 --> 0:13:22.520 You see the pointing hand. I don't know why. That 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:26.880 was really funny to me. But the beaver, meanwhile, is 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:29.800 a dog. It's just fully a dog, but with one 0:13:30.240 --> 0:13:35.760 major variation with weird bulbous eye sockets bulging out of 0:13:35.800 --> 0:13:38.319 his head over the snout. And we were trying to 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:41.520 figure out which Star Wars alien this dog looked like. 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:44.679 I eventually realized I was sort of thinking, it looks 0:13:44.720 --> 0:13:48.599 like the dog version of the Zandozan assassin from the 0:13:48.679 --> 0:13:49.680 Last Starfighter. 0:13:50.200 --> 0:13:53.680 Yeah, yeah, I can see that, and I took a 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:56.240 I was like, something was about this was ringing Star 0:13:56.280 --> 0:13:58.600 Wars for me as well. So I had the best 0:13:58.640 --> 0:14:00.920 diaries some of a couple of Star Wars best areas 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:04.560 out anyway for the Monster fact I'm working on for 0:14:04.679 --> 0:14:07.280 this week, So I was like, what is it reminding 0:14:07.320 --> 0:14:09.240 me of? And I think it's reminding me of the 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:13.840 of issue tib. This is a strange kind of Avian 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:17.520 or beak looking creature that's in the background at Java's 0:14:17.559 --> 0:14:22.479 Palace but has also subsequently been used in like comics 0:14:22.480 --> 0:14:24.160 and on the Clone Wars and stuff like that. 0:14:24.600 --> 0:14:26.240 This was one of those where you showed me an 0:14:26.240 --> 0:14:28.480 image and I was like, oh, I have seen this before, 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:30.880 but I can't remember from where. It's really kind of 0:14:30.920 --> 0:14:33.400 in the background, but yeah, Isshu Tube is like in 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:35.920 Return of the Jedi. There I found a shot of 0:14:36.000 --> 0:14:39.240 him like back sort of behind Luke's head while Luke 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:40.760 is pointing a blaster at Java. 0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:44.520 He's not, in my opinion, one of the more interesting 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:48.960 Java's Palace aliens. Like I didn't have him as a figure, 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:52.480 which you know, maybe that's because I didn't find him interesting, 0:14:52.560 --> 0:14:54.120 or maybe I don't find him interesting because I don't 0:14:54.120 --> 0:14:55.040 have the connection with the toy. 0:14:55.560 --> 0:14:57.800 Well, anyway, do you get back to the beaver in 0:14:57.880 --> 0:15:01.520 this drawing, which again is just a dull. It's interesting 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:05.680 because he's not biting his testicles here. They're floating in 0:15:05.760 --> 0:15:09.360 the air behind him, as if the alien dog beaver 0:15:09.760 --> 0:15:13.560 has sort of projectile defecated them in the hunter's direction. 0:15:13.760 --> 0:15:16.360 You see, they're like a floating four leaf clover in 0:15:16.400 --> 0:15:16.800 the air. 0:15:17.360 --> 0:15:21.080 The four leafed aspect of the testicle is interesting, and 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:23.240 I think that will be of note when we get 0:15:23.240 --> 0:15:27.840 into the actual anatomy of the lower regions of the beaver. 0:15:28.240 --> 0:15:30.240 Now, the examples don't stop there. We could go on 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:33.000 naming many more, but I think you get the idea. 0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:35.280 There was one thing I just wanted to mention further 0:15:35.360 --> 0:15:39.440 because it's kind of interesting variation, and that's an illustration 0:15:39.600 --> 0:15:42.640 of a beaver hunt from the Queen Mary Salter, an 0:15:42.680 --> 0:15:48.160 early fourteenth century manuscript called Royal two B. And in 0:15:48.200 --> 0:15:51.080 this one, the beaver again looks nothing like a beaver, 0:15:51.160 --> 0:15:53.640 but in a different way. This time it's just a fox. 0:15:53.880 --> 0:15:56.840 It's yeah, would you say it's like a gray fox? 0:15:57.280 --> 0:15:58.320 Yeah, it looks like a fox. 0:15:58.720 --> 0:16:01.600 The hunter approaches with an axe propped up on his shoulder, 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:06.560 and the beaver lies on his back, exposing his belly. Interesting. 0:16:07.120 --> 0:16:12.560 Apparently this was another common motif in these medieval illustrations 0:16:12.560 --> 0:16:15.479 of beavers, in addition to beaver's biting off their own testicles. 0:16:15.920 --> 0:16:18.800 Allegedly this would happen they would lie on their back 0:16:18.800 --> 0:16:23.160 and expose their belly after they had previously bitten them off, 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:26.240 or after they had been harvested by a previous hunter 0:16:26.280 --> 0:16:29.280 and the beaver had survived. So the beaver here is 0:16:29.360 --> 0:16:32.480 revealing I haven't got what you're looking for. And then 0:16:32.520 --> 0:16:34.800 the hunter in this image, the hunter does look kind 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:37.480 of annoyed, doesn't he. He's like, ah, what for real? 0:16:38.520 --> 0:16:38.920 He does? 0:16:38.920 --> 0:16:42.600 These guys hand up like ah, man chase this critter 0:16:42.760 --> 0:16:46.120 down in the woods and it doesn't have the goods anymore. 0:16:46.440 --> 0:16:49.000 But in the medieval lore of beaver hunts, the idea 0:16:49.120 --> 0:16:51.360 was that the beaver is clever, It knows what the 0:16:51.400 --> 0:16:53.560 hunter is looking for, and the beaver is thinking, oh, 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:55.120 if I can show off that I don't have what 0:16:55.120 --> 0:16:56.520 the hunter needs, it won't kill me. 0:16:56.840 --> 0:16:59.080 Yeah, now this is going to be interesting to reflect 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:01.800 on it in a bed when we talk about beaver aggression, 0:17:02.600 --> 0:17:07.160 I can only imagine that this idea of the cornered 0:17:07.200 --> 0:17:14.800 beaver being a docile creature is an extreme exaggeration and inaccuracy. 0:17:15.280 --> 0:17:17.960 So this imagery is obviously a lot of fun. But 0:17:18.160 --> 0:17:20.840 rob would you, I think it's safe to say, I 0:17:20.920 --> 0:17:25.120 hope you'll agree that the chomping, off, dropping, shooting, projectile, 0:17:25.160 --> 0:17:29.960 pooping of testicles, none of this reflects any biological reality. 0:17:30.040 --> 0:17:34.320 This is not something beavers actually do, or ever actually did. Correct. 0:17:34.400 --> 0:17:37.560 Yeah, this is, as we'll discuss in a bit, it's 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:42.760 referred to as the vulgar error. At times, the error 0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:47.639 is based on some definite biological realities concerning the beaver. 0:17:48.359 --> 0:17:50.919 But they did not do this. Yeah, this is not 0:17:51.040 --> 0:17:53.920 something they did. This is not something I think any 0:17:53.960 --> 0:17:58.119 animal does. So before we get into exactly why that, 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:01.199 we have to talk about what they were after with 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:05.640 all of this. They were after castorium, the hunters were Yes, 0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:10.000 the hunters were after castorium, a product derived from beaver's 0:18:10.200 --> 0:18:12.480 I believe we mentioned this briefly in the last episode. 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:16.040 But the basic reality here is beavers keep their hide 0:18:16.080 --> 0:18:20.960 waterproof via oily secretions from their cast or glands. Each 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:24.199 beaver male or female has a pair of these along 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:27.479 with a pair of anal glands. So so far castor 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:31.640 glands anal glands one pair of each. This alone makes 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:35.879 me think back to that sort of four clothed testicle 0:18:36.000 --> 0:18:40.480 that has dropped in one of those eliminated manuscript details 0:18:40.480 --> 0:18:41.160 we were discussing. 0:18:41.440 --> 0:18:45.000 Yeah, that's the four sacks that's being chucked at the hunter. 0:18:45.560 --> 0:18:49.040 Yeah. Now I found a great article of great short 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:53.160 but detailed article with illustrations about the glands of the beaver. 0:18:53.560 --> 0:18:57.280 This is from nineteen seventy eight by Gerald E. Svenson, 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:02.040 and it's titled cast and anal Glands of the Beaver 0:19:02.119 --> 0:19:05.320 and was published in the Journal of Mammalogy and it's 0:19:05.359 --> 0:19:08.160 on jay Store. It's free to access. If you really 0:19:08.240 --> 0:19:09.879 want to go in depth on this and see the 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:15.480 very helpful illustrations, I definitely recommend it. But the author 0:19:15.520 --> 0:19:20.160 here says, quote, these glands liberate odoriferous products that may 0:19:20.160 --> 0:19:23.440 be used in the construction of scent mounts and in 0:19:23.600 --> 0:19:24.760 scent communication. 0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:27.920 This will sort of connect to what we talked about 0:19:27.920 --> 0:19:31.439 in the previous episode about the territoriality observed in the 0:19:31.440 --> 0:19:35.080 Eurasian beavers, where a family group would build a lodge 0:19:35.080 --> 0:19:37.000 in a dam, and it would sort of police the 0:19:37.000 --> 0:19:41.000 borders of its area to keep rivals out. And one 0:19:41.040 --> 0:19:43.520 of the things it would do in order to indicate 0:19:43.560 --> 0:19:47.199 the borders of its area is do scent marking. And 0:19:47.400 --> 0:19:52.760 often it was observed that along with the stick shaking behavior, 0:19:52.800 --> 0:19:55.960 when a beaver felt its territory might be being encroached 0:19:56.000 --> 0:19:59.080 on by another beaver from outside the group, it would 0:19:59.160 --> 0:20:02.000 engage in a additional scent marking. It would start to 0:20:02.080 --> 0:20:06.280 mark either with anal glands or castorium. Yeah. 0:20:06.480 --> 0:20:10.399 So both anal uncastor glands are in a cavity that 0:20:10.480 --> 0:20:13.160 the author here describes as being similar to a scrotum, 0:20:13.320 --> 0:20:16.840 and that quote. Testes lie anterior to the glands in 0:20:16.880 --> 0:20:21.520 the distal region of the Inguinol Canal. The testes protrude 0:20:21.600 --> 0:20:25.360 into the gland cavity in sexually mature males, but are 0:20:25.400 --> 0:20:29.040 separated from the glands by tissue of the terminal end 0:20:29.600 --> 0:20:34.800 of the Inginol canal and the lining of the gland cavity. Okay, 0:20:34.960 --> 0:20:38.560 I realize that's a lot and joe for you. Anyway, 0:20:38.960 --> 0:20:42.440 I included an illustration from this paper that I think 0:20:42.560 --> 0:20:45.000 makes a little more sense of this. This is one 0:20:45.040 --> 0:20:48.240 of two illustrations that the author provides, and a reminder, 0:20:48.280 --> 0:20:50.320 we're very much in the kloaca here. 0:20:50.680 --> 0:20:52.879 Right, So in the back of the beaver, sort of 0:20:52.880 --> 0:20:56.480 between the tail and the hind legs, we have the 0:20:56.520 --> 0:21:01.119 gland cavity and it contains these different organs, the anal 0:21:01.119 --> 0:21:02.760 gland and the castor gland. 0:21:03.359 --> 0:21:07.840 Yes, now he points out that anal glands are posterior 0:21:07.920 --> 0:21:12.880 to the castor glands, and each gland opens independently via ducts. 0:21:13.359 --> 0:21:18.440 So the castor glands, however, don't open directly to the outside. Instead, 0:21:18.720 --> 0:21:21.679 they hook up to the urethra and open into the 0:21:21.680 --> 0:21:25.520 beaver's cloaca. However, I imagine this will be key to 0:21:25.520 --> 0:21:26.639 what we're discussing here. 0:21:26.840 --> 0:21:27.119 Quote. 0:21:27.560 --> 0:21:32.720 Contraction of the muscle sheath also forces the papillary end 0:21:32.840 --> 0:21:37.800 of the anal gland to protrude from the cloaca. I 0:21:37.840 --> 0:21:39.480 do not think the same is true of the castor 0:21:39.520 --> 0:21:42.760 glands proper, but again I'm thinking of some of that. Basically, 0:21:42.760 --> 0:21:47.240 getting back to this idea of glands something like testicles, 0:21:48.000 --> 0:21:50.760 or they could be seen as testicles emerging from the 0:21:50.800 --> 0:21:54.440 cloaca of the beaver, and then it's not there again, 0:21:54.520 --> 0:21:59.800 you know. Common feature of these illustrations interesting though, the 0:22:00.160 --> 0:22:02.719 if I'm understanding everything correctly, these would be the anal glands, 0:22:02.760 --> 0:22:04.160 not the castor glands. 0:22:04.560 --> 0:22:07.680 But the illustrator doesn't understand it's either one. They think 0:22:07.680 --> 0:22:10.359 they're seeing gonads and then like they're there again, and 0:22:10.359 --> 0:22:12.760 then then they're gone right now. 0:22:13.119 --> 0:22:16.440 As for the castorium itself, I've seen it described as 0:22:16.520 --> 0:22:21.239 butter like. Svenson describes it as yellowish, but then it 0:22:21.320 --> 0:22:25.479 turns brown when exposed to air and sunlight. He shares 0:22:25.560 --> 0:22:28.520 that urine washes the cast or out in a quote 0:22:28.600 --> 0:22:32.879 unquote composite mixture that has a pungent odor. He writes, 0:22:33.359 --> 0:22:36.800