Invasive Species Management or Animal Cruelty: The Nutria

Ava Steiner '22 ~ April 2022

American wetlands are one of the most valuable ecosystems, providing flood control, natural water filtering, carbon storage, erosion prevention, and aesthetic value as well as a treasure trove of natural products we use every day. However, an invasive species from South America is wreaking havoc on our wetlands, leaving lawmakers and wildlife experts puzzled on how to handle them.

The nutria, originally brought to the US in 1889 for its prized fur, is a two-foot long, semi-aquatic rodent often mistaken for a beaver. Although called coypu, river rat, or swamp beaver, nutria are not related to beavers nor the common rat. After the nutria fur trade collapsed in the 1940s, thousands of nutria were released into the wild. Their habitat now extends across more than 20 states, including Maryland, Louisiana, the Western coast and Southeastern states from Texas to Florida. Their high reproductive rate combined with their ability to eat up to 25 percent of their body weight in plants each day makes the population very hard to control.

What exactly is the issue with nutria?

The orange-toothed rodent gnaws on plant roots that hold wetland soil together. They burrow and dig in river banks causing erosion and decreasing water quality, and they outcompete native species like muskrats and waterfowl. They also damage man-made levees and dikes that prevent flooding in coastal states, causing floods in vulnerable cities like New Orleans.

Because the “swamp rat” reproduces rapidly, wildlife officials have had to involve citizens in the race to eradicate the rodent. Six dollars per tail is offered to trappers and hunters by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, and for a short while, shooting nutria was added to Louisiana law enforcement’s duties. But because a tail is the only body part required to earn the bounty, tailless nutria carcasses are dumped back into the swamp to rot.

Fashion designers, such as Cree McCree from New Orleans, began marketing nutria fur as guilt-free and environmentally friendly. McCree started her fashion line Righteous Fur to “save our wetlands,” buying nutria that would otherwise be discarded from trappers and hunters and using their fur and signature orange teeth to make clothing, accessories, and jewelry. It could still be tough to think of any fur as guilt-free, though. Micha Michelle Melancon, another designer from New Orleans reviving the nutria fur trend, reflects that she’s working with “a soft, furry, once-living-and-breathing being.”

Although using dead nutria for fur is hardly considered cruel, some ways of eradicating nutria population are animal cruelty by law. A new bill being considered by the US House of Representatives would prohibit the use of body-gripping traps (traps that severely wound and traumatize the animal without killing it) within the National Wildlife Refuge System. The National Wildlife Refuge System is a network of public lands and waters dedicated to the conservation of native and endangered species, where most nutria threaten wetlands. A variety of traps including body-gripping ones are currently used to eradicate invasive species and control regular populations that grow too large for the land’s resources. The bill, called the Refuge from Cruel Trapping Act, aims to save the lives of endangered species, non-target animals like river otters, beavers, and rabbits, and pets that are unintentionally hurt and killed by the inhumane traps. However, congressmen like Garret Graves (R-Baton Rouge) don’t want this legislation to hurt the nutria extermination effort. Graves says he’s working “to try to get this amendment on the bill to either exclude nutria or be more prescriptive about when and where these traps can be used.”

Without traps, wildlife officials are forced to collect nutria and must try to figure out where the rest live. In Virginia, this requires lures made from fecal matter of collected nutria and outfitting collected nutria with monitoring technology to then release and track them. The only problem? This strategy is technically illegal due to an old state law. The law prohibits the sale, possession, or liberation of live nutria, but the legislation actually harms its own purpose. “Where you find one nutria, sometimes you find others,” said director of the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources Ryan Brown. With releasing the monitored animals, “you don’t lose track of the one you’ve got. He’s not getting free or spreading out anywhere.” Delegate James Edmunds (R-Halifax) proposed a bill that would grant an exception to this law to the Department of Wildlife Resources, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees.

What’s the solution to these invasive critters?

We may have to take a page out of the Cajun cookbook. A nutria-themed cookbook, to be exact. Published in 1963 by Louisiana State University, Nutria for Home Use offers recipes for nutria gumbo, macaroni-nutria casserole, and nutria chop suey. Locals claim the meat tastes like rabbit, and it's not at all unhealthy. In fact, Pennington Biomedical Research Center says when compared to turkey, chicken and beef, nutria have the highest protein, least amount of fat, and lowest cholesterol per 100 grams. But if the thought of macaroni-nutria casserole still has you gagging, veteran chef Philippe Parola of Louisiana could have you enjoying a meal of nutria without even knowing it. Famous for introducing invasive Asian carp into the Southern diet, Parola’s motto is “if you can’t beat ‘em, eat ‘em.” Parola’s strategy is all about marketing: when serving nutria he calls the rodent by its fancier French name, Ragondin. If nutria are popularized in the culinary space, it could be an easy way to increase jobs, provide healthy and sustainable meat, and heal wetlands.

Our irreplaceable wetlands will continue to be destroyed not only by nutria and other invasive species, but also by construction and overharvesting driven by human profit. Education about wetlands is paramount for the enjoyment of America's natural resources by generations to come. And don’t be surprised if you see a nutria fur coat for sale in the near future, or if you find yourself ordering a luxurious entree of Ragondin.

Title Photo: https://pxhere.com/en/photo/985842, Pxhere