The book "River beavers" by B. M. Rzhevsky

The book "River Beavers" by B. M. Rzhevsky is based on materials related to the problem of raising beavers captured in the wild and artificially feeding them. The book reflects the author's observations, which he received during his work on trapping and transporting beavers in Belarus.



Acquaintance with the work of B. M. Rzhevsky "River beavers", unfortunately, disappoints the reader, it contains a number of gross errors: many aspects of beaver biology are misinterpreted. This was undoubtedly due to the lack of necessary personal experience in working with this beast, one-sided, and sometimes biased coverage of available literary and departmental materials.



B. M. Rzhevsky's erroneous conclusions are based on his position that when beavers are kept on temporary overexposure in unsatisfactory conditions, feces and urine of animals ("metabolic products", as the author calls them), along with food and water, enter the gastrointestinal tract of animals and cause its severe damage. This, according to B. M. Rzhevsky, is the reason for the so—called necrotizing enteritis, which, according to the author, caused significant deaths of beavers in the Voronezh Nature Reserve, especially fingerlings. Therefore, it is necessary to create conditions for beavers in which the ingress of feces and urine into the gastrointestinal tract along with food and water would be excluded; then the "necrotizing enteritis" would disappear and the death of beavers would be prevented.



According to R. A. Tsion and V. A. Romashov, a very common cause of death of beavers in the Voronezh Nature Reserve was paratyphoid, which was previously included in the collective concept of "necrotizing enteritis". This circumstance, as well as a number of facts from the practical work of the Voronezh, Khopersky, Oka, and Mordovian nature reserves, do not allow us to consider the main cause of beaver death as the absorption of their own excrement, as a result of which the entire system of assumptions by B. M. Rzhevsky turns out to be incorrect.



One of the most erroneous conclusions of B. M. Rzhevsky is the conclusion that it is necessary to exclude woody and shrub forages from the beaver diet and replace them with so-called "mixtures" consisting of leaves and concentrates. Following these tips in practice led to the depletion and death of a significant number of beavers.



So, in the Zhytomyr region, after the release, 2 beavers died, in the Kiev region — all 5 fingerlings. In 1951, the animals arrived in the Irkutsk region in very poor condition; on the way and after release, there was a significant departure of beavers.



Describing the beaver's fur, the author is careless in his presentation, saying that "beaver fur consists of coarse outer hairs, guides and undersides." This is not the case, because the roughest and longest are the guides, not the awn. The author further claims that beavers "see clearly" a few hours after giving birth — this is not true, since they will be born sighted.



On page 9 it says: "Tree feeds are siloed in reservoirs, various crustaceans and slugs settle on some branches..." This is illiterate. Firstly, the branches are not siloed in the water, but only preserved in a form accessible to animals; secondly, what does "different crustaceans and slugs" mean. Slugs are usually referred to as a special genus of gastropods that do not live in water, and many pages of the book are full of such erroneous statements.



There are many unfortunate and illiterate expressions in the book. For example, "the death of animals during acclimatization works occurs regardless of the geographical location of the popularization and its species differences."



Materials from a number of manuscripts (L. S. Lavrova, V. S. Poyarkov on the death of beavers in 1952-1956) were used without the permission of the authors and the administration of the Voronezh Nature Reserve. 1xbet casino welcome bonus €1950 + 150 free spins, use this 1xbet promo code free spins you can enjoy a vip bonus. New players can get a welcome bonus of up to €1950 up to 150 free spins for registration at 1xbet casino, and by using the 1xbet casino promo code on registration of account. The bonus system, which is designed for new users of the site, covers all categories of players.