Beavering away

[Tabouli]

Petra Pan:
>> Do beavers as a species exist in 
>> Australia?
Shaun:
> Only as an introduced species. Basically virtually every native mammal in Australia is a 
> marsupial (there's a tiny mouse that is a placental mammal). Closest equivalent to the 
> beaver in terms of place in the ecosystem is the very weird monotreme, the platypus.

Ah, the joys of convergent evolution.  The platypus does have that beaverish flat tail, too.  On the subject of introduced species, note that Shaun doesn't mean that there are tribes of feral beavers populating Australian waterways!  Any beavers in Australia would be strictly zoo exhibits only.  That said, I haven't visited Frankston (where Shaun lives) for ten years, so I can't vouch for this.  The place could be teeming with beavers for all I know...

Still on the subject of beavers, I'd bet that a reasonable proportion of English-speaking children the world over would be familiar with what they are, regardless of the beaver population of their country, from "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe".

Australians tend to understand both British and American slang from television and film, but tend to use the British words themselves (or a local word, if there is one).  Words which have suggestive association in the US or UK tend to acquire it in Australia as well, which means that "rubber" (eraser) is starting to get phased out, and "thong" (which in Australia always meant a rubber flip flop sandal with a thing between the toes, and is a bit of a national icon) is starting to raise giggles because of its American connotation of G-string.

Reminds me of the tendency for given names to start out as male and then become almost exclusively female after too many girls had been given them (e.g. Meredith).  Many a gender politics message to be gleaned, no doubt.  Curious.  I occasionally wonder if Cameron (Diaz) and Michael (Princess, of Kent) might eventually go the same way...

Tabouli.



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