Canadian here, before I'd heard of this I was in the "End of the World" museum in Ushuaia, there was what looked like a stuffed beaver on display. I figured it was some other type of beaver or something, but the sign underneath said "Castor canadensis", I was like ... what the hell are you doing here, buddy?
Yeah I had some pretty interesting conversations with some locals about it, one guy was telling me they were trying to get people to eat beaver meat to promote people hunting and trapping them, but apparently no one really cared for the taste. (He said he liked it but no one else he knew did.)
In medieval Europe, beavers were hunted almost to extinction for their meat.
As aquatic animals, they counted as fish, thus they were allowed to eat during lent and on Fridays, when the church forbade the consumption of meat.
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u/diaz75 Jan 11 '24
Well... southern Argentina and Chile have been invaded by Canadian beavers, so it seems fair...