SC - New World Foods-rant

[Laura C. Minnick]

lilinah at earthlink.net wrote:
>
> I confess limited zoological knowledge, but aren't New World beavers
> different from Old World beavers? After all, Robins in the US and
> Robins in England are two different unrelated birds.

Ok- I looked it up.

The Smithsonian web site says:

"BEAVER, semiaquatic mammal of the family _Castoridae_ in the rodent
order (see RODENT), noted for the building of dams. The family contains
a single genus, Castor, with two species: C. canadensis, found in the
New World, and C. fiber, found in the Old World. The two species differ
chiefly in the shape of the nasal bones and are so much alike that some
authorities consider them to be varieties of the same species."

They also remark that the Beaver is nearly extinct in Europe, but is
making a comeback in North America due to aggressive conservation
efforts.

As far as I'm concerned... that's pretty well the same animal.

'Lainie