Coypu facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Nutria Temporal range: Late Pliocene – Recent PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Genus:	Myocastor
Species:	coypus
The range of the Nutria Regions     Extant (resident)     Extant & Introduced (resident)Countries     Extant & Introduced (resident)     Extant (resident)     Extant & Introduced

The nutria or coypu (Myocastor coypus) is a herbivorous, semiaquatic rodent from South America. Classified for a long time as the only member of the family Myocastoridae, Myocastor has since been included within Echimyidae, the family of the spiny rats. The nutria lives in burrows alongside stretches of water and feeds on river plant stems. Originally native to subtropical and temperate South America, it was introduced to North America, Europe and Asia, primarily by fur farmers. Although it is still hunted and trapped for its fur in some regions, its destructive burrowing and feeding habits often bring it into conflict with humans, and it is considered an invasive species in the United States. Nutria also transmit various diseases to humans and animals, mainly through water contamination.

Etymology

The genus name Myocastor derives from the two Ancient Greek words μῦς (mûs) 'rat, mouse', and κάστωρ (kástōr) 'beaver'. Therefore, the name Myocastor literally means 'mouse beaver'.

Two names are commonly used in English for Myocastor coypus. The name nutria (from the Spanish word nutria 'otter') is generally used in North America, Asia, and throughout countries of the former Soviet Union; however, in most Spanish-speaking countries, the word nutria refers primarily to the otter. To avoid this ambiguity, the name coypu or coipo (derived from Mapudungun) is used in South America, Britain and other parts of Europe. In France, the nutria is known as a ragondin. In Dutch, it is known as beverrat 'beaver rat'. In German, it is known as Nutria, Biberratte 'beaver rat', or Sumpfbiber 'swamp beaver'. In Italy, instead, the popular name is, as in North America and Asia, nutria, but it is also called castorino 'little beaver', by which its fur is known in Italy. In Swedish, the animal is known as sumpbäver 'marsh/swamp beaver'. In Brazil, the animal is known as ratão-do-banhado 'big swamp rat', nútria, or caxingui (the last from Tupi).

Taxonomy

Skull

The nutria was first described by Juan Ignacio Molina in 1782 as Mus coypus, a member of the mouse genus. The genus Myocastor was assigned in 1792 by Robert Kerr. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, independently of Kerr, named the species Myopotamus coypus, and it is occasionally referred to by this name.

Four subspecies are generally recognized:

• M. c. bonariensis: northern Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, southern Brazil (RS, SC, PR, and SP)
• M. c. coypus: central Chile, Bolivia
• M. c. melanops: Chiloé Island
• M. c. santacruzae: Patagonia

M. c. bonariensis, the subspecies present in the northernmost (subtropical) part of the nutria's range, is believed to be the type of nutria most commonly introduced to other continents.

Phylogeny

Comparison of DNA and protein sequences showed that the genus Myocastor is the sister group to the genus Callistomys (painted tree-rats). In turn, these two taxa share evolutionary affinities with other Myocastorini genera: Proechimys and Hoplomys (armored rats) on the one hand, and Thrichomys on the other hand.

Appearance

Large orange teeth are clearly visible on this nutria

The nutria somewhat resembles a very large rat, or a beaver with a small, long and skinny hairless tail. Adults are typically 4–9 kg (9–20 lb) in weight, and 40–60 cm (16–24 in) in body length, with a 30 to 45 cm (12 to 18 in) tail. It is possible for nutria to weigh up to 16 to 17 kg (35 to 37 lb), although adults usually average 4.5 to 7 kg (10 to 15 lb). Nutria have three sets of fur. The guard hairs on the outer coat are three inches long. They have coarse, darkish brown midlayer fur with soft dense grey under fur, also called the nutria. Three distinguishing features are a white patch on the muzzle, webbed hind feet, and large, bright orange-yellow incisors. They have approximately 20 teeth with four large incisors that grow during the entirety of their lives. The orange discoloration is due to pigment staining from the mineral iron in the tooth enamel. Nutria have prominent four inch long whiskers on each side of their muzzle or cheek area. The mammary glands and teats of female nutria are high on her flanks, to allow their young to feed while the female is in the water. There is no visible distinction between male and female nutria. Both are similar in coloring and weight.

A nutria is often mistaken for a muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus), another widely dispersed, semiaquatic rodent that occupies the same wetland habitats. The muskrat, however, is smaller and more tolerant of cold climates, and has a laterally flattened tail it uses to assist in swimming, whereas the tail of a nutria is round. It can also be mistaken for a small beaver, as beavers and nutria have very similar anatomies and habitats. However, beavers' tails are flat and paddle-like, as opposed to the round tails of nutria.

Life history

Nutria can live up to six years in captivity, but individuals rarely live past three years old in the wild. According to one study, 80% of nutrias die within the first year, and less than 15% of a wild population is over 3 years old. A nutria is considered to have reached old age at 4 years old. Male nutria reach sexual maturity as early as four months, and females as early as three months; however, both can have a prolonged adolescence, up to the age of nine months. Once a female is pregnant, gestation lasts 130 days, and she may give birth to as few as one or as many as 13 offspring. The average nutria reproduction is four offspring. Female nutria will mate within two days after offspring are born. The years of reproduction cycle by litter size. Year one might be large, year two litter size will be smaller and year three the litter size will be another larger size. Females can only produce six litters in her life, rarely seven litters. A female on average will have two litters a year.

Nutria generally line nursery nests with grasses and soft reeds. Baby nutria are precocial, born fully furred and with open eyes; they can eat vegetation and swim with their parents within hours of birth. A female nutria can become pregnant again the day after she gives birth to her young. If timed properly, a female can become pregnant three times within a year. Newborn nutria nurse for seven to eight weeks, after which they leave their mothers. Nutria have been known to be territorial and aggressive when caught or cornered. They will bite and attack humans and dogs when threatened. Nutria are mainly crepuscular or nocturnal, with most activity occurring around dusk and sunset with highest activity around midnight. When food is scarce, nutria will forage during the day. When food is plentiful, nutria will rest and groom during the day.

Distribution

Nutria occurrence records from 1980 to 2018 in Europe.

Native to subtropical and temperate South America, its range includes Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and the southern parts of Brazil and Bolivia. It has been introduced to North America, Europe and Asia, primarily by fur ranchers. The distribution of nutrias outside South America tends to contract or expand with successive cold or mild winters. During cold winters, nutria often suffer frostbite on their tails, leading to infection or death. As a result, populations of nutria often contract and even become locally or regionally extinct as in the Scandinavian countries and such US states as Idaho, Montana, and Nebraska during the 1980s. During mild winters, their ranges tend to expand northward. For example, in recent years, range expansions have been noted in Washington and Oregon, as well as Delaware.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, nutria were first introduced to the United States in California, in 1899 by William Franklin Frakes. As of 2024^[update], they had spread to the San Francisco Bay Area, where their digging threatened storm levees, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife had an active eradication program.

They were first brought to Louisiana in the early 1930s for the fur industry, and the population was kept in check, or at a small population size, because of trapping pressure from the fur traders. The earliest account of nutria spreading freely into Louisiana wetlands from their enclosures was in the early 1940s; a hurricane hit the Louisiana coast for which many people were unprepared, and the storm destroyed the enclosures, enabling the nutria to escape into the wild. According to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, nutria were also transplanted from Port Arthur, Texas, to the Mississippi River in 1941 and then spread due to a hurricane later that year.

Habitat and feeding

Besides breeding quickly, each nutria consumes large amounts of aquatic vegetation. An individual consumes about 25% of its body weight daily, and feeds year-round. Being one of the world's larger extant rodents, a mature, healthy nutria averages 5.4 kg (11 lb 14 oz) in weight, but they can reach as much as 10 kg (22 lb). They eat the base of the above-ground stems of plants, and often dig through soil for roots and rhizomes to eat. Nutria eat parts and whole plants, and go after roots, rhizomes, tubers and black willow tree bark in the winter. Their creation of "eat-outs", areas where a majority of the above- and below-ground biomass has been removed, produces patches in the environment, which in turn disrupts the habitat for other animals and humans dependent on wetlands and marshes. Nutria eat the following plant varieties: cattail, rushes, reeds, arrowheads, flatsedges, and cordgrasses. Commercial crops that nutria also eat are lawn grasses, alfalfa, corn, rice, and sugarcane.

Nutria are found most commonly in freshwater marshes and wetlands, but also inhabit brackish marshes and rarely salt marshes. They either construct their own burrows, or occupy burrows abandoned by beaver, muskrats, or other animals. They are also capable of constructing floating rafts out of vegetation. Nutria live in partially underwater dens. The main chamber is not submerged underground. Nutria are considered to be a species that lives in colonies. One male will share a den with three or four females and their offspring. Nutria use "feeding platforms" which are constructed in the water from cut pieces of vegetation supported by a structure like a log or branches. Muskrat dens and beaver lodges are also often used as feeding platforms.

Commercial use and issues

Myocastor coypus

Farming and the fur trade

Local extinction in their native range due to overharvesting led to the development of nutria fur farms in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The first farms were in Argentina and then later in Europe, North America, and Asia. These farms have generally not been successful long-term investments, and farmed nutria often are released or escape as operations become unprofitable. The first attempt at nutria farming was in France in the early 1880s, but it was not much of a success. The first efficient and extensive nutria farms were located in South America in the 1920s. The South American farms were very successful, and led to the growth of similar farms in North America and Europe. Nutrias from these farms often escaped, or were deliberately released into the wild to provide a game animal or to remove aquatic vegetation.

Nutria were introduced to the Louisiana ecosystem in the 1930s, when they escaped from fur farms that had imported them from South America. Nutria were released into the wild by at least one Louisiana nutria farmer in 1933 and these releases were followed by E. A. McIlhenny who released his entire stock in 1945 on Avery Island. In 1940, some of the nutria escaped during a hurricane and quickly populated coastal marshes, inland swamps, and other wetland areas. From Louisiana, nutria have spread across the Southern United States, wreaking havoc on marshlands.

Following a decline in demand for nutria fur, nutria have since become pests in many areas, destroying aquatic vegetation, marshes, and irrigation systems, and chewing through man-made items such as tires and wooden house panelling in Louisiana, eroding river banks, and displacing native animals. Damage in Louisiana has been sufficiently severe since the 1950s to warrant legislative attention; in 1958, the first bounty was placed on nutria, though this effort was not funded. By the early 2000s, the Coastwide Nutria Control Program was established, which began paying bounties for nutria killed in 2002. In the Chesapeake Bay region in Maryland, where they were introduced in the 1940s, nutria are believed to have destroyed 2,800 to 3,200 hectares (7,000 to 8,000 acres) of marshland in the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. In response, by 2003, a multimillion-dollar eradication program was underway.

In the United Kingdom, nutria were introduced to East Anglia, for fur, in 1929; many escaped and damaged the drainage works, and a concerted programme by MAFF eradicated them by 1989.

Food products

A small number of game meat websites on the internet sell nutria meat for consumption. As of 2016, at least one Moscow restaurant serves nutria meat dishes. In 1997 and 1998, Louisiana attempted to encourage the public to consume nutria meat. Nutria meat is leaner with a lower fat content and lower in cholesterol compared to ground beef. In an effort to encourage Louisianians to eat nutria, several recipes were distributed to locals and published on the internet. People in poor and rural Louisiana have trapped and consumed nutria meat for decades.

Marsh Dog, a US company based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, received a grant from the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program to establish a company that uses nutria meat for dog food products. In 2012, the Louisiana Wildlife Federation recognized Marsh Dog with "Business Conservationist of the Year" award for finding a use for this eco-sustainable protein. A claimed environmentally sound solution is the use of nutria meat to make dog food treats.

In Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, nutria (Russian and local languages Нутрия) are farmed on private plots and sold in local markets as a poor man's meat. As of 2016, however, the meat is used successfully in Moscow restaurant Krasnodar Bistro, as part of the growing Russian localvore movement and as a 'foodie' craze. It appears on the menu as a burger, hotdog, dumplings, or wrapped in cabbage leaves, with the flavour being somewhere between turkey and pork.

Ecological impacts

Herbivory and habitat degradation

Zoo animal on logs

Nutria herbivory "severely reduces overall wetland biomass and can lead to the conversion of wetland to open water." Unlike other common disturbances in marshlands, such as fire and tropical storms, which are a once- or few-times-a-year occurrence, nutria feed year round, so their effects on the marsh are constant. Also, nutria are typically more destructive in the winter than in the growing season, due largely to the scarcity of above-ground vegetation; as nutria search for food, they dig up root networks and rhizomes for food.

While nutria are the most common herbivores in Louisiana marshes, they are not the only ones. Feral hogs, also known as wild boars (Sus scrofa), swamp rabbits (Sylvilagus aquaticus), and muskrats (Ondatra zibethicus) are less common, but feral hogs are increasing in number in Louisiana wetlands. On plots open to nutria herbivory, 40% less vegetation was found than in plots guarded against nutria by fences. This number may seem insignificant, and indeed herbivory alone is not a serious cause of land loss, but when herbivory was combined with an additional disturbance, such as fire, single vegetation removal, or double vegetation removal to simulate a tropical storm, the effect of the disturbances on the vegetation were greatly amplified.

As different factors were added together, they resulted in less overall vegetation. Adding fertilizer to open plots did not promote plant growth; instead, nutria fed more in the fertilized areas. Increasing fertilizer inputs in marshes only increases nutria biomass instead of the intended vegetation, therefore increasing nutrient input is not recommended. The problem became so serious that Sheriff Harry Lee of Jefferson Parish used SWAT sharpshooters against the animals.

Wetlands in general are a valuable resource both economically and environmentally. For instance, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined wetlands covered only 5% of the land surface of the contiguous 48 United States, but they support 31% of the nation's plant species. These very biodiverse systems provide resources, shelter, nesting sites, and resting sites (particularly Louisiana's coastal wetlands such as Grand Isle for migratory birds) to a wide array of wildlife. Human users also receive many benefits from wetlands, such as cleaner water, storm surge protection, oil and gas resources (especially on the Gulf Coast), reduced flooding, and chemical and biological waste reduction, to name a few. In Louisiana, rapid wetland loss occurs due to a variety of reasons; this state loses an estimated area about the size of a football field every hour.

In 1998, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) conducted the first Louisiana coast-wide survey, which was funded by the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection, and Restoration Act and titled the Nutria Harvest and Wetland Demonstration Program, to evaluate the condition of the marshlands. The survey revealed through aerial surveys of transects that herbivory damage to wetlands totaled roughly 36,000 hectares (90,000 acres). The next year, LDWF performed the same survey and found the area damaged by herbivory increased to about 42,000 hectares (105,000 acres). The LDWF has determined the wetlands affected by nutria decreased from an estimated minimum of 32,000 hectares (80,000 acres) of Louisiana wetlands in 2002–2003 season to about 2,548 hectares (6,296 acres) during the 2010–2011 season. The LDWF stresses that coastal wetland restoration projects will be greatly hindered without effective, sustainable nutria population control.

Pathogenic and viral reservoirs of zoonotic diseases

In addition to direct environmental damage, nutria are the host for a roundworm nematode parasite (Strongyloides myopotami ^[d]) that can infect the skin of humans, causing dermatitis similar to strongyloidiasis. The condition is also called "nutria itch". Other parasites they can host are tapeworms, liver flukes, and blood flukes.

Control efforts

As a global alien species, nutria are monitored and managed throughout the world. Many countries have attempted eradication efforts with varying degrees of success.

Nutria burrow on bank

Nutria are predicted to expand their range northward over the next century as global temperatures increase.

Gallery

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  Nutria heart

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  Skull from various perspectives

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  By the river Ljubljanica

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  Feral nutria in Oise river in France

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  10-day-old baby nutria

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  Track

See also

In Spanish: Coipo para niños