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Nutria pics

William

William

Wise Old Thumper
Yesterday morning a nutria was up in our yard :) At first he got startled when we came outside and he swam a few feet out into the water but then he quickly decided to come back on land and he came within less than 10 ft of us! He was just walking around grazing and acting really calm. He was barely startled by all the mallards and muscovies that were flying in for breakfast and landing noisily in the water. It was really cool and I'm hoping I can tame the nutrias up even more by offering veggies!


IMG_7720 by dylanduck14, on Flickr


IMG_7714 by dylanduck14, on Flickr


IMG_7713 by dylanduck14, on Flickr


IMG_7719 by dylanduck14, on Flickr


IMG_7641 by dylanduck14, on Flickr


IMG_7656 by dylanduck14, on Flickr


IMG_7658 by dylanduck14, on Flickr


IMG_7662 by dylanduck14, on Flickr

He apparently pushed down the flowers, broccoli plants and river oat like things, naughty nutria!


IMG_7685 by dylanduck14, on Flickr


IMG_7689 by dylanduck14, on Flickr


IMG_7695 by dylanduck14, on Flickr
 
They are cute wee things. Really a bit like a beavers face.

You are deffo lucky to have them living near you, I could sit for hours and watch wildlife if I had it in my garden! I only have birds but they are very watchable.
 
Yeah, they're really similar to our native beavers and round tailed muskrats.
I still can't quite believe I have them living in my yard, considering how I've been really interested/fascinated by them for like a year now! Seems like invasive animals are drawn like a magnet to our yard :lol:
 
That's so cool :) having them in your garden like that just living wild, it's like owning a safari park!

So jealous that you get to see them living naturally so close to your house!
 
I wasn't expecting that at all, I don't know what I thought they were but not that.

They look a lot like Coypu. There used to be lots of Coypu in East Anglia but ther were eradicated in 1989 by MAFF.
 
I do hope this means you have given up your other idea? See you can see them everyday without interfering with them. They are gorgeous :love:
 
Georgeypudding said:
they look like giant guinea pigs! :lol: What do they eat, just plants or do they eat meat/fish?
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Plants, but they just destroy stuff. They will waste about 90% of the plant material they destroy. They got out of control in East Anglia after being introduced via fur farming and were destroying the habitat of many native species so MAFF culled them. They are supposedly completely eradicated from the UK but there is still the odd sighting I think.
 
Yeah it's a shame how much damage they do, We're already starting to see some damage they've done on the bank of the lake. Destroying all the grass/plants on the bank and digging up the roots will cause eroding. And that's with I'm guessing only a couple or a few nutria at the most! I dread to think what damage they'll do to FL if they become prolific.

sally1974 said:
I do hope this means you have given up your other idea? See you can see them everyday without interfering with them. They are gorgeous :love:
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I'd always planned on taming them up, that way I'd get the best of both worlds :) Some tame nutria in my yard to watch as well as pet nutria. I probably don't have the funds currently for pet ones, what with the new kitten and upgrading my duck pen, so if they happened to have babies anytime soon I wouldn't be able to get any but maybe one day. Although, my parents and brother are pretty enthusiastic about the idea of this project too so who knows.
 
what will you do if they really start causing havoc/upsetting the existing animals in your yard? Getting rid would be really pants but I guess there's nothing you can do to stop them doing what is natural?
 
Yeah that would be bad as it's illegal to transport them anywhere and even if it weren't illegal I obviously wouldn't want to dump them somewhere else where they'll just wreck havoc there too. And I don't want them killed either. It's a shame they aren't a bit better about their eating habits like beavers and muskrats are.

I've read about the things you can do to limit the damage e.g put fences around crops (they can't climb and can't dig under fences if you put down wire or bricks etc) and embankment barriers (mesh, stone etc) to prevent burrowing and digging up roots. Hopefully they don't burrow...I've heard in subtropical places they're often content with just plant cover (they use our pampas grass for cover).
 
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