Nutria

Nutria live in and beside water, digging burrows into banks and feeding on water plants. They eat the roots and underground stems of marsh plants, digging and grazing them away.

Their teats are set high on the sides of the body, so the young can nurse while their mother floats in the water.

Nutria are an introduced animal whose feeding can strip marsh vegetation and turn marsh into open water, especially along the Gulf Coast, where they have been part of serious wetland losses.

None of that is the animal's fault. Nutria were brought from South America by people for their fur and released or escaped when the fur market collapsed. The animal itself is a well-adapted wetland rodent, living where people put it.

Breeding — all year
Gestation — about four months
Litter — usually four to six young, born fully furred with eyes open
Swimming — within hours of birth
Weaning — at about seven to eight weeks old
Maturity — at about four to six months old
Lifespan — a few years in the wild

• Nutria burrowing into pond dams and levees can be discouraged with wire mesh or stone facing.
• Feeding nutria concentrates them and increases damage to plants.
• Lethal traps for nutria can catch otters, beavers and other native animals.

• Nutria are giant muskrats or beavers. They are a separate South American rodent.
• Nutria are native. They were brought to North America by people for fur farming.
• Introduced animals are villains. The damage they do follows from where people released them.

• American beaver
• Muskrat
• Round-tailed muskrat