Nutria: The Orange-Toothed Rodent Eating Louisiana's Coastline

The Orange-Toothed Rodent Eating Louisiana's Coastline

The nutria is a herbivorous, semiaquatic, web-footed rodent with bright orange incisors and a face that only a mother nutria could love. Originally imported from South America for the fur trade, they escaped captivity — or were released when the fur market collapsed — and have been destroying Louisiana's coastal wetlands ever since. They eat marsh grass down to the roots, and their destructive feeding and burrowing behaviors contribute to the coastal soil erosion that is literally causing Louisiana to disappear into the Gulf of Mexico.

A single nutria can consume about 25% of its body weight in vegetation per day. Multiply that by millions of nutria across the coastal marshes, and you have an ecological disaster with whiskers. The marsh grass they eat holds the soil together; without it, the land erodes, the wetlands shrink, and the natural storm buffer that protects New Orleans from hurricanes gets a little thinner every year.

An Invasive Species With an Attitude

Nutria look like beavers that went through a rough patch. They can weigh up to 20 pounds, they swim with surprising speed, and they're as comfortable on a suburban levee as they are in a remote swamp. Joggers on the lakefront have encountered them. Golfers have spotted them on courses. They've been seen in City Park, along the Industrial Canal, and basically anywhere there's water and vegetation.

Louisiana has fought the nutria invasion with bounty programs that pay hunters per tail, with some success in controlling populations. There have also been periodic efforts to market nutria meat as a sustainable protein — it's low in fat and apparently tastes like rabbit — though consumer enthusiasm has been, to put it generously, limited.

Frequently Asked Questions About Nutria

What is a nutria?

A nutria is a large, semiaquatic rodent native to South America. They were imported to Louisiana for the fur trade and became an invasive species when they escaped or were released into the wild.

Why are nutria a problem?

Nutria eat marsh vegetation down to the roots and burrow into levees and embankments, causing severe coastal erosion that contributes to Louisiana's ongoing land loss crisis.

How do you identify a nutria?

Nutria have distinctive bright orange front teeth, a round tail (unlike a beaver's flat tail), webbed hind feet, and can weigh up to 20 pounds. They're commonly found near water.