Nutria and Our Wetland Environment

Yesterday, I happened to meet a guy who works for the California Department of Fish and Game whose life’s work is hunting nutria, an invasive species of rodent shown at left.

“What’s the deal with the nutria?” I asked?

The answer, in essence: Nutria could be said to be the anti-matter of the beaver.  Where the latter improves every aspect of the biosphere it inhabits, the former destroys the local wetland environment, primarily through their ravenous consumption of aquatic vegetation, (roots and all) which destabilizes the soil leading to erosion, which, in turn, destroys critical habitat for other wildlife and disrupts the entire wetland ecosystem balance.

According to the fellow I met, what they do to the manmade portion of the environment is arguably even worse, e.g., undermining bridge footings.

I asked what they look like, to which the guy said, “Just imagine a 20-pound hamster.”  When I searched for the picture above, I realized that I would call it an ugly 20-pound hamster.