State wildlife officials have finally come up with a theory that would explain where a giant, highly destructive rodent terrorizing California came from: Oregon.
The nutria, a creature with the body of a small otter, platypus-like webbed feet and the tail of a rat, reappeared in the state’s wetlands a few years ago, nearly four decades after it was thought extinct.
California has been struggling with the rodent ever since, and recent research by wildlife officials suggests that the rodent’s sudden return may have been intentional.
StudyThe study, released Tuesday by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, found that the state’s nutria population shares a close genetic match to Oregon’s nutria. According to researchers, the distance between the states makes it almost impossible for them to migrate on their own, meaning they were likely brought here intentionally.
Researchers speculate that people may have brought the rodents to California as a natural remedy to fight growing vegetation or simply because they liked them. The exact reason is unclear.
Native to South America, nutria were originally brought to the US in the early 1900s for breeding and reintroduction for the fur trade which was never successful. This rodent was largely invisible until 2017, when a pregnant female was found in Merced County.
According to wildlife experts, nutria love the sun and they breed rapidly in places with mild winters. Today, they are mostly found roaming the swamps of the Central Valley, especially around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. They can eat up to a quarter of their body weight in vegetation, burrow destructively and devastate waterways and ecosystems. Researchers say this animal is a threat to the state’s agriculture and water supply.
Since 2017, the Department of Fish and Wildlife has released 7,841 nutria by trapping or otherwise sterilizing them with tracking devices and releasing them back into the wild.
To help Californians get rid of this pest, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service suggests hunting them and cooking them for eating. One TikTok user even cooked and ate them tacos.
