Nutria are such prolific breeders that one female can lead to offspring in just a year, says Tira. Unlike animals that take a year or longer to reach sexual maturity, nutria are ready to make babies at about four to six months.
Females have anywhere from five to seven babies in a litter, and they have several litters every year. They've become a nuisance along the Gulf Coast, in the Chesapeake Bay, and in the northwest, but by far Louisiana has borne the brunt of the invasive species. The animals thrive in marine environments and quickly spread through rivers into coastal wetlands. One of the worst is the way they consume flora.
Rather than just chomping on leaves, they eat the entire plant, including the roots, which means it's less likely to grow back. In California, where more than 90 percent of the region's wetlands have been destroyed by development, any loss has lasting impacts. Nutria also pose a risk to agriculture production, and their burrowing can cause infrastructure damage.
In Louisiana, they weakened drainage canals and levees. Tira fears they could do the same in California. In the early s , Louisiana's wildlife department tried encouraging people to eat nutria by asking chefs to create recipes inspired by the rodent.
There was even a campaign to bring their fur back in fashion, including the tagline: "Look fabulous while helping to save the wetlands. Taking a more direct approach, Maryland's wildlife department staged an eradication project in which tens of thousands were removed from the wetlands over a year period. None of the rodents have been documented since. Tira says California is currently trying to catch as many as possible and is asking people to call officials when they spot one.
Should the problem worsen, Maryland, he says, may serve as a model. The result is devastating for their habitat, wetlands and some agriculture. This was apparent in the s, when farmers reported damage to rice and sugarcane fields.
By , when they numbered approximately 20 million in number, nutria weren't considered so helpful for controlling pesky plants and were removed from the state's list of protected wildlife. Trappers went to work to use nutria pelts to meet demand in the fur industry, bringing the population to a more reasonable level.
From to trapping and severe weather incidents kept the population lower and nutria were back on the protected wildlife list. Prolific breeding, a decline in the demand for nutria pelts and erosion of wetlands from weather have all combined to again make nutria more pest than helper.
Nutria have fed their negative reputation as the more they eat, the more they contribute to wetland erosion. Although an accomplished businessman, biologist, and folklorist, McIlhenny made no pretense about being a historian. He often embellished stories, particularly about himself, in the jovial manner of a seasoned raconteur. Indeed, it was McIlhenny himself who first claimed to have introduced nutria to Louisiana.
His involvement with nutria began tangentially in , when Armand P. Fascinated by the publication, Daspit consulted McIlhenny, who was widely known as an expert on fur-bearing animals, having for years allowed trappers to harvest muskrat, mink, otter, opossum, raccoon, and skunk on his coastal properties. They live on the same sort of food that muskrats thrive on, but the cost per pair is very high. The colony soon grew very large and were liberated in the marshes.
In the meantime, at least two other private nutria farms began operation in Louisiana. Susan Brote and her husband, H. Conrad Brote, operated one of these nutria farms in St.
Tammany Parish. Interestingly, Mr. Brote served as a captain in the merchant marine, traveling between New Orleans and Buenos Aires, where nutria abounded.
Long Library at the University of New Orleans. Brote wrote McIlhenny:. We raised them very successfully in brick pens but could find no satisfactory market for them. We sold some to fur dealers and other individuals and turned the rest out.
The release evidently occurred at least several months before McIlhenny purchased his first nutria. In order to reduce the nutria population, the agency sets a yearly goal of , trapped nutria. Since the program started in , this goal has been achieved only in 's record season. Cherie M. Pucheu-Haston with the LSU Veterinary Dermatology said nutria meat is a unique source of novelty protein — a new protein most pets haven't come in contact with. She joked that she has always wanted to start a nutria farm to supply a novel protein to some of her food allergic patients.
Nutria meat has similar nutritional value to other common meat sources; it even has slightly lower cholesterol than beef, she said. She cited two science journals, one that took into consideration the levels of fat and cholesterol, while the other looked into acids and minerals. The meat is a healthy alternative that complies with current healthy and dietary recommendations for low-fat, low-cholesterol diets, according to the Journal of Food Composition and Analysis.
Taking into account the protein content and amino acids composition, fatty acids and minerals of farmed nutria, the nutritional value of nutria meat is even adequate for human nutrition, especially when it comes to providing iron for children and women, according to an analysis by the Meat Science journal.
The state even made an effort in to promote the human consumption of nutria, resulting in Nutriafest and celebrity chef Paul Prudhomme offering savory recipes for nutria sausage, etouffee and gumbo. But the festival never caught on, thanks to the negative perception of nutria.
Choate has been trying to put a dent in the nutria population for decades. Living on the gulf keeps him aware of the effects nutria has on erosion. He also knows the chances of a shortage are slim due to breeding habits. They repopulate rapidly with a litter every eight weeks, with females being able to give birth at just 12 weeks old. Seeing full nutria traps and getting paid for the pelts used to be Choate's favorite part of hunting, until the fur market dissipated.
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