NUTRIA
Nutria are strict vegetarians, but they do not eat only nuisance plants such as water hyacinth and alligatorweed. They eat a wide variety of species, including rice and sugarcane. Their messy feeding habits make them particularly wasteful - they only consume 10% of what they cut down with their sharp incisors. They consume about 25% of their body weight each day.
Nutria are aquatic by nature and live in burrows. This habit frequently causes problems for humans, because their burrows weaken levees. In areas with tall vegetation, they often form "hides" by tunneling about under matted grass.
The average nutria probably lives three or four years in the wild. They begin breeding on average at about 6 months of age. Gestation is approximately 130 days, litters are usually four or five, and mating typically occurs about 48 hours after birth. Putting the pencil to paper with these facts tells us that by the end of its first year, a female nutria can have produced one litter and be two months into a second litter. Coincidental with her first birthday is that her first babies are now sexually mature and breeding and, like their mom, will produce 12-15 babies per year for 3-4 years! Newborn nutria feed on vegetation within hours and will nurse for 7-8 weeks. Studies by Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries have shown that brackish marsh can sustain a maximum of nine nutria per acre, and freshwater marsh can sustain 18 per acre. At 640 acres per square mile, some sites in Louisiana could be populated by as many as 11,520 nutria per square mile; 6,000 have been documented by scientists!!! When the populations of these ravenous critters get too high, they may eat all the vegetation, including the roots. This results in barren areas, sometimes hundreds of acres in size, referred to as "eat outs".
Humans who work in the marsh may get an occasionally case of nutria itch, resulting in severe itching and swelling. It is caused by a small roundworm (a nematode of the genus Strongyloides) that is parasitic in nutria intestines. Nematode eggs leave the nutria in its feces, and they hatch into tiny larvae that swim about in the water. Normally, these larvae burrow into a nutria, become adults, and the cycle begins again. If some hapless human who is not wearing boots comes along, the larvae burrow into his or her skin. Since humans are not the normal host, the larvae burrow about until they die. The whole process can cause three weeks of unmitigated agony!
It is ideal to trap nutria in the winter, thus avoiding numerous confrontations with cottonmouths and alligators. Nutria fur is almost worthless in today's fur industry; therefore, it is necessary for the landowner or land manager to pay a bounty for each nutria captured.
