THE WAR AGAINST NUTRIA

The History of Nutria

EDITOR'S NOTE: Nutria, semi-aquatic rodents with the proper name of coypu, have eaten away at Louisiana's marshlands for some years. The federal government has sent Louisiana $2 million to fight the war on nutria. These l2- to 18-pound demons detrimentally impact about 100,000 acres of wildlife-rich marshlands each year. If someone doesn't stop them, other coastal states may face drastic land loss thanks to these furry Argentine invaders. So, now predator hunters have a new predator to hunt. And sportsmen who get permission to hunt nutria from Louisiana landowners can get paid for the nutria tails they harvest.

So, why has Louisiana gone to war on nutria with a bonus incentive for taking them? To understand the nutria problem, you have to know the history of nutria in Louisiana. Louisiana realized it had a problem with nutria in the 1980s as fur prices started to decline, and the nutria population increased. The state noticed that the nutria, which prefer to eat shellfish, reeds, rushes, cattails, arrowhead and sawgrass, had destroyed sections of the marsh, leaving behind mud where once thrived a rich habitat for fish and wildlife.

According to Jeff Marks, a biologist for Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries, "We can't put a definite number on the amount of land lost because of nutria. We do know, however, that nutria detrimentally affect 80,000 to 100,000 acres each year. The nutria themselves don't completely destroy the marsh. They eat away at the root systems and kill the vegetation. So when high water or a big storm blows through the area, there's no marsh grass to hold the mud, resulting in the loss of that land."

"My grandfather bought nutria for his fur farm back in the 1940s," Morgan Perrin Jr. of Lafitte, Louisiana, says. "In those days, nutria brought about $7 to $7.50 a pelt. My grandfather already raised and sold mink, and he trapped muskrats and raised other fur bearers. The nutria offered a new cash crop to his fur business. But Grandfather didn't know that the nutria could dig out of his pen. Within the first week, they all escaped."

Then later when the price of nutria dropped below $1 each, rather than feed the animals (a nutria eats 2.5 to 3.5 pounds of food per day) that they couldn't make a profit on, many of the nutria farmers opened their pens and released the nutria. Most believed, "Why keep nutria when they cost you more to feed than you can make selling their pelts?" Feral populations of nutria became established in the wild, and they began to show up in the trappers' fur harvest in the 1940s.

NUTRIA FACTS:

Nutria, rodents that generally measure about 14 inches long from their noses to the base of their tails, have long, round, scaly tails 12- to 17-inches long. Nutria, which average weighing between 16- and 18-pound each, have webbed back feet. Nutria prefer to live in rivers, lakes, swamps and marshes and make their homes in fresh or salt water. Nutria live in burrows that often have openings at both ends with the entrances usually positioned toward the river above the water level. Besides their favorite foods of marsh vegetation and shellfish, nutria also will feed on crops such as cabbage, carrots, sweet potatoes and rice. Nutria eat approximately 2.5 to 3.5 pounds of food per day, however they can survive as long as a month without food. In captivity, they can live up to 12 years.

Nutria can breed any month of the year with females producing two to three litters a year of generally two to five young each. At birth, the young have fur and opened eyes and can move about and eat vegetation within a few hours. Some landowners have introduced nutria as a cure-all for ponds choked with vegetation, but nutria will not eat moss. Once nutria get established in a lake, their high reproductive capacity soon results in overpopulation. The animals then begin to move into other areas where they destroy vegetation valuable to wildlife. Nutria also cause problems by damaging levees and dikes with their burrows. But nutria do have several predators, including wild cats, red wolves, large snakes, alligators, hawks, owls and eagles.

For information on the World Championship Nutria Hunt or to go nutria hunting, call the Lodge of Louisiana at (504) 689-0000, or visit the Web site at www.lodgeoflouisiana.com.