Nutria Facts: Invasive Species Info Mostly True
“NUTRIA Range: Gulf Coast states. Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, and Florida have the heaviest populations. They're invasive. Came from South America and never left. Habitat: Marshes, swamps, pond banks, levees, drainage ditches. Freshwater wetlands. Diet: Vegetation. Marsh grasses, roots, aquatic plants. They'll eat the roots right out of a levee. Average Size: 12 to 20 pounds. Looks like a giant rat with orange teeth. Season: Year-round in most Gulf states. Louisiana runs a bounty program. Check your state for specifics. Method: Foothold traps and body-grip traps in their runs and feed areas.”
Summary
Nutria are invasive rodents native to South America that now thrive primarily in Gulf Coast states, especially Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, and Florida. They inhabit freshwater wetlands such as marshes, swamps, levees, and drainage ditches, feeding on vegetation and roots that can damage levees. Adults typically weigh between about 10 and 18 pounds, and they are present year‑round; Louisiana operates a bounty program that pays trappers for each tail harvested, using foothold and body‑grip traps.
Sources 57 searched
- The nutria (Myocastor coypus), a large, semi-aquatic rodent native to
The nutria’s relatively high reproductive rate, combined with a lack of · population controls, helped the species to spread. In many regions they · cause severe damage. Nutria are most abundant in the Gulf Coast States, but they also cause · problems in other southeastern States, the Pacific ...
- Operational Activities: Nutria | Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
Nutria ( Myocastor coypus) are large, semi-aquatic rodents that are native to South America. The species is invasive in the United States and established in 17 States.
- Nutria | National Invasive Species Information Center
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ... a success. ... USDA. APHIS. Wildlife Services. The nutria (Myocastor coypus), a large, semi-aquatic rodent native to South America, was originally brought to the United States in 1889 for its fur....
- Louisiana Nutria Fur, Damage and Control | Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries
It is estimated that approximately 16,424 acres of wetlands impacted by nutria as of April 2018. The chance of restoring or even slowing the degradation of coastal marshes in Louisiana will be hampered considerably without sustained reduction ...
- LDWF Announces Increase in Bounty for Coastwide Nutria Control Program | Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries
“The Coastwide Nutria Control Program plays an important part in keeping down the number of this invasive species that destroys our marshes. We hope the increase in the bounty will incentivize hunters and trappers to go after more nutria.’’ The program was established in 2002 to combat nutria in coastal Louisiana.
- Wetland and Aquatic Research Center | U.S. Geological Survey
The life history of hard-shelled sea turtles includes several ontogenetic shifts in habitat use and these complex permanent emigration patterns can impact estimates of stage-specific population rates, including survival. We developed several multistate mark recapture models to estimate survival of adult and juvenile loggerhead turtles from a coastal bay in the northern Gulf of America...
- nutria (Myocastor coypus) - Species Profile - USGS NAS
If it’s assumed that there are two million M. coypus in coastal Louisiana, grazing would result in a loss of carbon equivalent to that of 40,500 metric tons of coal or 12.5 million gallons of gas (Holm et al.
- Nutria Control Program
This program is managed by U.S Department of Agriculture - Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. To incentive the harvesting of nutria, the Coastwide Nutria Control Program will pay licensed trappers a bounty of $6/nutria tail.
- How Nutria Took Over Louisiana | Historic New Orleans Collection
Man with nutria pelts at Sagrera and Son Fur Dealers in Abbeville, Louisiana, 1973 or ’74, by Douglas Baz and Charles H. Traub HNOC, © Douglas Baz and Charles H. Traub, 2019.0362.58.1 · So began, in 2002, the campaign to mitigate the orange-toothed rodent of unusual size (10 to 18 pounds on average). Trappers became bounty hunters, and today the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries offers $6 per tail to encourage nutria-population control.
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