Definition of BEAVER RAT
: a golden Australian water rat (Hydromys chrysogaster) with an elongated flattened body, broad flat head, short limbs, large feet, and a short heavy white-tipped tail.
Fur seals. The loss of furs from other sources was a major incentive leading to massive hunts for various types of seal. The animals were usually clubbed to death when they came ashore to breed. The pattern was familiar - the discovery of large populations of target species, the development of intensive hunting leading to extermination or depletion, the move to a new area. The first phase (1780-1820) was directed at the southern fur seal in many areas of the southern hemisphere and was carried out by sealers from Europe, Russia, Canada and the U.S. http://darwin.bio.uci.edu/~sustain/bio65/lec05/b65lec05.htm
The Australian Mountain Brushtail Possum. We have a lot of these in Wychwood Forest.
The Australian brush tailed possum was introduced into New Zealand in 1837 to establish a fur trade. http://www.doc.govt.nz/conservation/threats-and-impacts/animal-pests/animal-pests-a-z/possums/facts/
Eugène von Guérard, The barter, 1854, oil on canvas.
(Trading possum furs).
4 comments:
When I was edumacating myself about this animal after our correspondence, I read that it started to be hunted for fur only after foreign furs had been banned from import. Late 1800's from memory. Good post Le Loup.
Craig Meade
Pioneerhandbooks.blogspot.com
Thanks for the feedback & info Craig, appreciated.
Keith.
When i took a trip to australia last summer, i landed in sydney, and i visited my uncle who lives there, we spent a month in the "outback" hunting, he showed me a place where beaver rats lived, a little pond with a river. i even saw oe! deadly cute little creatures, and he did say they were heavily hunted in the 18th and 19th centuries, he even showed me a beaver rat skin pouch he had! good times.
Thanks for the information Dustin, very interesting & very much appreciated.
Keith.
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