From Robert Antonucci
You note that beavers' anal secretions are used in perfume and other products (22 October, p 36). I'd like to know about the brave men and women who do the harvesting. It's not easy even to capture a beaver. I once lived on a property with an artificial lake. There was an overflow cut into the dam, which was key to preventing it washing away – but the beavers didn't like that strategy, and kept damming it up.
Many nights I'd have to go out during lightning storms and confront them, tearing down as they built. I was braver then.
Harvesting these secretions sounds doubly difficult.
Santa Barbara, California, US
