Giant Swamp Rats Are Literally Eating Louisiana

[marmar]

On the southern edge of Louisiana, there is almost as much water as land. You can't drive to anyone's house, you have to travel by boat, and sometimes there are hours of water between neighbors. It takes a special breed to make a home here, in the swamp, amongst the mosquitos and almost annual hurricanes. But those who do call it home, love it. They see a magical space of strange stillness and subtle rippling greens and grays where time worries no one and the freedom of the water is at your doorstep.

But this Huck Finn way of life is being attacked on multiple fronts. Climate change's stronger storms are beating away at the fragile coastline, and the oil and gas industries are scarring the skyline while luring younger generations away from the local farming and fishing way of life. As if that weren't enough, 20-pound, semi-aquatic rodents, called nutria, which are native to Argentina, are taking over the marshes, devouring the native plants that hold the soil in place, and causing massive coastal erosion. Chris Metzier, an independent documentary filmmaker, has spent months in these swamps on the front lines of this battle, filming his upcoming documentary Rodents of Unusual Size. He sat down with me recently to talk about nutria and the interesting people who are fighting them to save their way of life.

TakePart: How would you describe nutria, and how did they end up in Louisiana?

Chris Metzier: Nutria are something like a cross between a beaver and a New York sewer rat. They were first brought to Louisiana in the 1930s in order to be farmed for their fur, which was growing in popularity. No one knows exactly how they escaped into the wild. Maybe someone let them go when the fur industry was failing, or perhaps it was the work of a hurricane that tore apart a barn they were being kept in. One way or another, they escaped into the swamps and have just gone crazy. This part of Louisiana is just like a big playground for them. And they can breed within months of being born and have multiple litters a year. There are now about five million nutria in this part of Louisiana. There are nutria in other parts of the country, as well, but nowhere have they made themselves quite so much at home as in Louisiana. That's great for nutria, I guess, but they eat everything that grows, and without plants holding the soil in place, it is eroding away at record speeds—about 40 square miles per year, for several decades now. ...........................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://news.yahoo.com/giant-swamp-rats-literally-eating-louisiana-questions-202344859.html

[snooper2]

1. what do they taste like?

[LuvNewcastle]

9. I've heard they're not too bad.

I'm guessing that they might taste similar to guinea pigs, which are very popular in some parts of South America. If you put the meat in gumbo or some sort of soup, it will probably take on some of the flavor of the seafood or chicken and sausage. I'd be willing to give it a try.

[d_r]

37. better than muskrat

here's some recipes= http://www.nutria.com/site14.php

[Maeve]

53. My first thought as well...eat what's eating you! eom

[Sheepshank]

2. Oh you literally meant swamp rats. Have to take off my political hat for a second.....

but the end result is the same...."eeewwwwwwwww"

[Vinnie From Indy]

3. Wait till the burmese pythons from the everglades

get to Louisiana. Oy!

[RebelOne]

29. That would be a good thing. They'll eat the rats. n/t

[tblue]

4. ROUS!!!!

EEK! A ROUS!

[BREMPRO]

12. lmao! now i know what we are up against lol! just need 5 million princes to be imported to Louisiana

that should take care of them!

[Fire Walk With Me]

45. But then who will feed and shelter the 5 million princes!? We'll need 5 million pricess brides...

Overrun by characters. Just like the cane toad in Australia, only a much better love story.

[Junkdrawer]

5. Sounds like the beginning of an Australian nightmare....

You know: Introduce nutria predators then watch as THEY become an even bigger problem.

Man-made ecosystems never seem to work out....

[AngryAmish]

6. My solution: plant some rock pythons in the swamps

Nothing could go wrong with that...

[MattBaggins]

8. There was an old lady who swallowed a fly

[longship]

34. We all know where that ends.

It ends with elephants which one can get rid of with just a few mice.

[11 Bravo]

7. Can I nominate Piyush Jindal to be the appetizer?

[Octafish]

10. Swamp Rat is Truth!

[Mnemosyne]

16. My first thought also. I wonder does he ever come around anymore? Haven't seen him here in ages.

[Blue_Tires]

23. I was sort of hoping he'd make an appearance...

Hope he's well, wherever he is...

[byeya]

11. Nutria have been there for decades and I even have a nutria felt hat. Something in the ecology

of Louisiana has worsened to allow this population explosion. Exotic animals and plants are a huge problem in North America and Nutria are yet another example. Wild boar from Europe are killing native vegetation in the forested southeast.

Imported diseases have pretty much killed all of our native elms and chestnuts and dogwoods are dying rapidly.

Starlings almost caused the extinction of bluebirds before the bluebird nestbox building took hold.

[fleur-de-lisa]

24. What does the nutria fur feel like?

I live in south Louisiana and have seen these creepy things roaming around at night, but I've never been close enough to get a good look at the pelt. Doesn't look to be very soft. I've always imagined it would be like petting a hedgehog.

[byeya]

25. By the time the Nutria fur is processed into felt and compressed it feels like most felt fedoras

do except for beaver which feels nicer(the only word I can think of and I have a few Italian beaver fedoras) and is long wearing.
It's good for hats, in my opinion and environmentally, so much better than beaver.
If you've ever seen a photo of a park ranger of the National Park Service in his/her flat brimmed ranger hat, the odds are, it's made of Nutria fur.
I would hope some of the bayou dwellers in LA would make a dollar or three trapping these nutria and selling the pelts for use in hats and whatever else can be sold - felt boot liners for ice fishermen maybe.

[msanthrope]

32. Didn't George Costanza have a Nutria hat? nt

[byeya]

40. Yes he surely did. He got Elaine, while she was running J. Peterman, Co, to buy him a sable.

large Dr Zhivago type of hat.
And when Elaine tried to justify the expense saying it was sable(there was a hat loss and switch to nutria) the man in accounting said, "No it's not a type of sable, it's a type of rat"
Thanks for reminding me of this memorable moment of a great tv series.

[fleur-de-lisa]

36. Good to know . . .

I have heard that a lot of gun nuts in south Louisiana, and even law enforcement in some rural areas, will shoot nutria just for sport. Nobody seems to care since they have become invasive. Might as well put their pelts to good use instead of just killing them and leaving the carcasses to rot.

[SoCalDem]

13. Somehow. I see the oil/gas/chemical folks as a more dangerous

threat to Louisiana

[DavidDvorkin]

14. War with the Newts

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_with_the_Newts

[byeya]

15. A wonderful book as is his play R.U.R.

[DavidDvorkin]

22. Yes! I wish he were better known nowadays.

[blogslut]

61. He and his brother wrote an amazing play

The Insect Play - one of the best segments involved and army of red ants at war with an army of black ants over a blade of grass.

[BillStein]

20. that was scary

War with Newts? I pictured hundreds of fat little hypocrites with gray hair! Never more scared!!!

[DavidDvorkin]

21. The newts in the book are intelligent and honorable.

[byeya]

27. I don't know why it's not better known. This type of fiction is still popular and it's

beautifully written even in translation.
R.U.R. introduced the word "robot" to the world and deserves to be staged.

[Junkdrawer]

41. Thanks. I'm an early sci-fi fan and I've never read Karel Capek....

Shocking omission.

Think I'll begin to fix that.



Shoud I start with R.U.R. or War with the Newts?

[byeya]

44. It's just my opinion, but I'd pick War with the Newts.

[Junkdrawer]

46. Oh, look: 3 of his works are on AudioBooksForFree.com....

And there's 'War with the Newts'....


http://www.audiobooksforfree.com/browse/Fiction?au=Karel%2BCapek

[byeya]

56. Go for it!!

[DavidDvorkin]

47. As I remember, R.U.R. is shorter

It's a play, so the written form is more compact than a novel. I remember it as a fairly quick read.

They're quite different, but both are really great.

[mainer]

17. Pet food industry? Asian food market?

It's free range and said to be delicious. The possibilities for this source of protein seem pretty good.

[Enrique]

18. I'm bullish on nutria n/t

[demwing]

19. Newchurats

Met a guy from LA when I liven in San Francisco, and he tried to tell me about eating nutria rats.

Problem was this guy had an accent born in the Louisiana swamps, and wasn't very well educated. Oh hell, he was as dumb as a stump.

I couldn't make out the word "nutria." It sounded like he was saying "newchurat," so I eventually asked him to spell it.

His eyes lost focus for a sec, and then he sounded it out phonetically: "New"-"Tree"-"Yah."

I said "No, no...spell it, please!"

He says "I did spell it..." 'New' like it aint old, 'tree' like a big bush, and 'yah' like 'yah want I should spell it again?' ..."Newchurat"

I about died.

[fleur-de-lisa]

26. Your guy is what we call a 'Boudreaux' . . .

a not so bright person of Cajun descent. They are supposedly known for their willingness to eat anything that doesn't eat them first. There are all kinds of Boudreaux jokes flying across the intertubes:


Down in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, Boudreaux gets a job with BP helping with the Gulf oil spill cleanup. He reports for work and is told to speak to a supervisor about his assignment.

He finds the man and asks, "What it is you want I should do?"

The supervisor tells Boudreaux to go to the animal shelter and clean the pelicans. Two hours later, Boudreaux comes up to the supervisor and says, "Okay, dey all clean. You want I should cook some rice?"

[byeya]

28. LOL

[hootinholler]

49. He was saying Nutria Rat

Which is what English speaking folk call them. Newchurat would be the Cajun pronunciation.

As to spelling, you don tol me nutin me!

[KamaAina]

30. Meet Boudreaux, the AAA New Orleans Zephyrs' mascot

Yup, their teeth really are Boner orange.

[Mr. David]

57. I still salute the Zephyrs..

They were the pre-Colorado Rockies (Denver Zephyrs) before 1993.

After we obtained the team, the AAA team was sold to New Orleans and still is named the Zephyrs for different reasons.

[KamaAina]

58. The Denver Zephyrs were named after the California Zephyr train

that runs through Denver.

Traditionally, New Orleans baseball teams were the Pelicans. I guess they couldn't get the rights to that; it will now be the name of the NBA Hornets.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

31. I hear they consider soiled diapers worn by Senators a delicacy (n/m)

[fleur-de-lisa]

38. Horrified is the way to go, I think . . .

Their teeth are kind of like beaver, but they remind me more of hamster teeth, huge hamster teeth. Most of the nutria I have seen have far longer teeth than the one in the photo, and they are dark yellow, kind of 'school bus' colored. I mean the teeth are yellow, not the nutria.

And they are nocturnal and rather large, like a small to medium sized dog. Can you imagine seeing one of those things at night? I have never heard of one being aggressive, thank goodness. But they are creepy. The stuff of nightmares . . .

[fleur-de-lisa]

42. Yes, I've seen them in person . . .

They live in low-lying, wet areas and also in the man-made canals in south Louisiana. There are literally thousands of canals around here because most of the area is, or was, swamp land. The nutria habitat isn't limited to rural areas. The creepy buggers are everywhere.

[1-Old-Man]

35. Bon appe'tit! I wish them a hearty appetite

They can eat the entire state as far as I care.

[BlueJazz]

43. I've got 2 pet rats but what they usually do is chase the dog. (and he likes it)

He's a Golden Retriever and plays with them for hours.

This is about how they look..

[bluedigger]

48. Maybe if we can convince the Chinese they cure cancer...

Yeah, that's the ticket!

[Fire Walk With Me]

50. Wilford Brimley

[Junkdrawer]

52. Take care of your diabetes

[leveymg]

51. I miss our Swamp Rat!

Anyone know what ever happened to him?

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

63. Has he posted after Katrina? nt

[leveymg]

65. Katrina was '05. Some of his work from '07-'08 is on Google images.

Nothing thereafter that I could find.

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

66. Well, that's good. I recall the concern for him back then.

Hope he is still OK.

[leveymg]

67. He has a distinctive style. Haven't seen anything quite like it anywhere since.

Another

[leveymg]

68. Think I may have found him!

Destonio.net @ seedsofdoubt.com. This is from late 2008:

[ladjf]

54. Among other things, they are eating most of the cypress saplings. nt

[0rganism]

55. just wait until the fence at the capybara farm breaks!

Then the rodent problems will really begin

[rdharma]

59. Nutria Chili

Recipe

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nutria Chili
Recipe by: Chef Enola Prudhomme

3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 pounds nutria ground meat
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon red pepper
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon chili powder
1 cup diced onion
1 cup diced green bell pepper
1 cup diced red bell pepper
1 cup tomato paste
4 cups beef stock (or water)
1 can red kidney beans (opt.)

In a heavy 5-quart pot on high heat, add oil and heat until very hot. Add meat, and cook and stir 10 minutes. Add salt, red pepper, chili powder, onion and both bell peppers. Cook and stir 15 minutes. Add tomato paste and 4 cups stock. Cook 30 minutes; reduce heat to medium. Add red kidney beans; cook an additional 10 minutes. Serve hot!

[MFM008]

60. poor rats

they keep eating parts of the south they will die for sure.

[nolabear]

62. They used to be trapped for their fur, which is gorgeous, but the traps were dangerous.

Once that was stopped because Fideaux kept getting in the traps they took off. And yes, they're enormous things.

Personally, I think nutria are not the varmints that are hurting Louisiana. Big Oil and the gov't are doing more than their fair share.

[MichaelSoE]

64. they have nutria hit squads ....

From Dave Attell's insomniac series ... the nutria hit squad segment @ 8:48