State wildlife officials in Columbia, South Carolina are a tad worried. It seems a large rodent a.k.a. nutria, genus evident by the large, rodential quality of the teeth, is making it's way into the Savannah River Basin.
This nutria, affectionately called Mark, wonders why people don't like him.
He's a nice nutria, a bit smelly, but
he's harmless in an insistent kind of way.
The furry bucktoothed nutria looks like a mix between a beaver and an English gameshow host and weighs up to 20 pounds. Most non-rodents consider them a nuisance. The nutria, that is. Well, the gameshow hosts as well. Back to the nutria.
They eat marsh plants and dig through dams making a big mess all over the place. And when they're not eating, nutria are racing to reach sexual maturity in order to reproduce. They are described by friend and foe alike as prolific.
Louisiana hunters get $4 a pop and residents are encouraged to eat them. A government site has recipes that include stuffed nutria hindquarters, nutria chili and nutria fricassee. Oddly and ironically, it was fur trappers that introduced to them to North Americas from the South. They came just ahead of the Africanized Bees.
Nutria Gumbo
One wonders which wine to serve.
"We'd rather not have them," agency biologist Jay Butfiloski (real name given readily) said. "It may take a while to see what kind of impact they are going to have."
A tasty one, if anyone's paying attention!
2 comments:
That cute little critter and you have to show it all cooked up. Are they not indiginous to Lousianna?
Brought in from South America to California from hence they emmigrated after proliferation.
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