calvisson-leblon

The fur industry seems to lack foresight.   In part I, I wrote that in France the breeding of the ragondin , an Argentine-born rodent for its fur ended in fiasco in the 1930s.   Absurdly, in the next decade, the Argentinians repeated this mistake, and introduced the Canadian beaver to Patagonia.   As in France, the Argentine fur business did not flourish.   As a result, Argentina and neighboring Chile are now trying to eradicate some 100,000 beavers that are destroying native forests.   For its part, France is at loss to eradicate a ragondin population estimated at 400,000. In 1946, 25 pairs of Canadian beavers were imported to Tierra del Fuego, a large island at the southern tip of Patagonia shared by Argentina and Chile. The beaver population expanded rapidly and got out of control; unlike in their homeland, they have no predators in Tierra del Fuego.   Building dams and chomping trees, the busy rodents are wreaking havoc on the environment....

“Invasive species are plants, animals, or pathogens that are non-native (or alien) to the ecosystem under consideration and whose introduction causes or is likely to cause harm.” This is a definition found on the Internet. This politically correct blog is concerned with a specific critter, and not the two-legged species whose presence is generating toxic arguments among the French populace.   In the southern region of France, around the marshy Camargue, a foreign mammal has attracted plenty of attention.   If French people are unenthusiastically getting used to its presence, foreigners particularly Americans, Northern Europeans and Australians find it peculiar because it is unknown to them. It is a rodent twice the size of a muskrat, and can weigh up to ten kilograms.   It is semiaquatic and when swimming, commonly mistaken with a beaver, with similar size, head and fur color.   However, tails are different, broad and scaly for the beaver and rat-li...