What do nutria eat

Over the years, schemes to take on booming nutria populations have ranged from the practical to the downright outrageous. To encourage residents to help control the nutria population, the state of Louisiana put a bounty on nutria heads — well, on their tails.

Pet food company Marsh Dog found a solution for what to do with the captured-and-killed nutria: Turn them into dog treats. The company rolled out wild nutria dog biscuits, USA Today reported. Marsh Dog estimates that it could get rid of more than 55, nutria each year. So, nutria makes a decent dog biscuit, but what about us?

Turns out, people have been coming up with creative ways to cook nutria for decades. But lately, the techniques have been getting fancier.

They also feature a video on how to prepare nutria from, uh, scratch. The hind legs are much larger than the forelegs. When moving on land, a nutria may drag its chest and appear to hunch its back. Like beavers, nutria have large incisors that are yellow-orange to orange-red on their outer surfaces.

In addition to having webbed hind feet, nutria have several other adaptations to a semi-aquatic life. The eyes, ears, and nostrils of nutria are set high on their heads. Additionally, the nostrils and mouth have valves that seal out water while swimming, diving, or feeding underwater.

The mammae or teats of the female are located high on the sides, which allows the young to suckle while in the water. When pursued, nutria can swim long distances under water and see well enough to evade capture. In the wild, most nutria probably live less than 3 years; captive animals, however, may live 15 to 20 years. Predation, disease and parasitism, water level fluctuations, habitat quality, highway traffic, and weather extremes affect mortality.

Predators of nutria include humans through regulated harvest , alligators Alligator mississippiensis , garfish Lepisosteus spp. Nutria densities vary greatly. Sex ratios range from 0. In summer, nutria live on the ground in dense vegetation, but at other times of the year they use burrows. Burrows may be those abandoned by other animals such as armadillos Dasypus novemcinctus , beavers, and muskrats, or they may be dug by nutria.

Underground burrows are used by individuals or multigenerational family groups. Burrow entrances are usually located in the vegetated banks of natural and human-made waterways, especially those having a slope greater than 45 degrees. Burrows range from a simple, short tunnel with one entrance to complex systems with several tunnels and entrances at different levels. Tunnels are usually 4 to 6 feet 1. Compartments within the tunnel system are used for resting, feeding, escape from predators and the weather, and other activities.

These vary in size, from small ledges that are only 1 foot 0. The floors of these chambers are above the water line and may be covered with plant debris discarded during feeding and shaped into crude nests. In addition to using land nests and burrows, nutria often build flattened circular platforms of vegetation in shallow water.

Constructed of coarse emergent vegetation, these platforms are used for feeding, loafing, grooming, birthing, and escape, and are often misidentified as muskrat houses. They are found most frequently in freshwater marshes and wetlands. They sometimes inhabit brackish waters, and on rare occasions, salt water marshes as well.

Nutria are naturally found across the southern half of South America. They inhabit most of Argentina and Chile, in the subtropical and temperate regions. In Europe, the large rodents can be found from France all the way to the Ukraine. In Africa, invasive populations have become established in Kenya. Nutria rats will eat virtually any vegetation close to aquatic regions.

They eat a variety of plant matter, from roots to entire shrubs. They will occasionally feed on snails and shellfish if they come across them. Efforts to eradicate invasive nutria from wetlands have been extensive. Many states have programs in which a monetary incentive is placed on the capture and killing of nutria. You can distinguish nutria from beavers by their rounded tails, and nutria from muskrats by their larger size.

Fresh and brackish marshes, swamps, impoundments, farm ponds and other wetlands. Semi-aquatic, spending time both on land and in the water. Primarily nocturnal, feeding around midnight and resting during the day. Nutria are large, brown, semi-aquatic rodents that live in marshes and wetlands on the Delmarva Peninsula and other parts of the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

They are an invasive species. The nutria has a dense, gray undercoat guarded by long, coarse hairs that vary in color from yellowish-brown to dark brown. It has large, bright orange front teeth and small eyes and ears that are located high on its head. It has short legs with large, webbed hind feet that can be nearly 6 inches long.