Range
The Eurasian beaver is recovering from near extinction, after depredation by humans for its fur and for castoreum', a secretion of its scent gland believed to have medicinal properties. The estimated population was only 1,200 by the early 20th century. In many European nations, the beaver went extinct but reintroduction and protection has led to gradual recovery to approximately 639,000 individuals by 2003. Milishnikov found in genetic studies that beaver likely survived east of the Urals from a nineteenth century population as low of 300 animals, and that factors contributing to their survival include their ability to maintain sufficient genetic diversity to recover from a population as low as 3 individuals, and that beavers are monogamous and select mates that are genetically different from themselves. 83% of Eurasian beavers live in the former Soviet Union thanks to reintroductions, however the result is that beaver in Mongolia or Siberia do not appear significantly genetically different from samples from the European part of Russia, despite the great geographical distance.
Read more about this topic: Eurasian Beaver
Famous quotes containing the word range:
“The variables of quantification, ‘something,’ ‘nothing,’ ‘everything,’ range over our whole ontology, whatever it may be; and we are convicted of a particular ontological presupposition if, and only if, the alleged presuppositum has to be reckoned among the entities over which our variables range in order to render one of our affirmations true.”
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—Northern Irish Tourist Board. quoted in New Statesman (London, Aug. 29, 1969)
“A girl must allow others to share the responsibility for care, thus enabling others to care for her. She must learn how to care in ways appropriate to her age, her desires, and her needs; she then acts with authenticity. She must be allowed the freedom not to care; she then has access to a wide range of feelings and is able to care more fully.”
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