Dorothy Richards (3) (1894–1985)

I feel torn on this book.

On the one hand, it includes a lot of interesting and amusing anecdotes about beavers, which I found endearing.

On the other, once the author begins keeping beavers in her basement to "study" them, I just felt weird about it. Richards isn't stupid. She knows that a captive beaver will not behave the same as one in the wild, and says as much. So of what value does she consider her observations of the behavior of her "house beavers"? Clearly she loved them and did the best she could by them, but I just found myself feeling sad for these beavers who could never leave the confines of her house.

Then again, this was a different time, when beavers had nearly been eradicated from New York State, and I imagine Richards felt sometimes like confining the beavers was the only foolproof way of keeping them from being trapped and killed. From that perspective, I empathize with and appreciate her compassion. I also think that her observations of their human-like behavior and intelligence may convince some people of the beavers' "personhood," and to that end, I think she was successful.

However, as I said before, how accurate are the observations of the captive beavers? And of what value are they to people who want to learn more about beaver behavior? Probably not much. But to convince somebody that beavers are awesome, intelligent creatures? To show people the importance of conservationism? This book is great.

Anyway. That's my ambivalent review.… (mehr)