Nutria Sighting

[cavdad45]

I am shocked!!! There are nutria all over the Willamette Valley. Even in the Portland area, you will see them munching on lawns near drainage creeks or anywhere else their is water. They are nuisances.

They were brough here in the early 20th century from South America for the fur trade, much like domestic mink. The fur lacked the quality so the became junk pets like rabbits and guinea pigs. Even in the 1950's they were raised as 4-H projects. Now no one wants them and all have been released or escaped. Like any member of the rodent family, it has a knack for breeding. The current price for prime nutria pelts is under $4, just a little more than a muskrat.

BTW, watch that nutria when it gets babies. It has nipples on its back so the young can ride mom like a raft while eating.

[racfish]

Now thats handy info!!! hehehe.Nipples on their back?Kinda like tethes on a bull.All I know is they arent affraid of humans.The one we were throwing rocks at didnt budge when they splashed near it.I'll wait till they are 10 bucks a pelt.Then I'll hunt them down.muahaha

[cavdad45]

Trap them with a standard drowning wire. No damage to the pelt. Prime time is Nov-Dec.

[zbo]

When I was down at the Columbia River fishing/having a bonfire with some friends, a nutria ran across the road so i chased it. I chased it all the way to a condo that was being built along the river, and then for some reason it turned and came straight at me! I had a wooden end of a shovel (for poking the fire) and swung and killed it pretty easily, but it hissed while it came at me. Scared me a bit. But ya those things are nasty

[ruthven78]

Yesterday while on my walk along the lake we saw it up close.Down near the Lakewood boathouse I saw what I thought was a beaver.The only thing was it didnt have a paddle tail like beavers have.It had a thick tail like a dog or cat.It didnt spook easy.It seemed to have no fear of us. We threw a few rocks near it to see it dive.It just stared at us .Im reporting it to the city health dept today.There were 3 other people who were watching it with us.I bet it went 10-17 lbs.This sucka was big.

You are sure it was a nutria and not a muskrat? They look similar and I doubt I could tell them apart at a distance. Looks like a big diference is in the tail. The nutria has a round tail and the muskrat's tail is somewhat flattened vertically to act as a rudder.

Muskrat

Nutria

Differences between Muskrat and Nutria

[eustace]

ruthven78, one of these animals was photo'd near cheney last year. It was on KXLY News 4, the animal was feeding in a persons back yard on the grass. The WDFW was going to try to trap it, I don't know if they ever did. I will shoot them just like I do muskrats, if they borrow tunnels like a muskrat under lawns along lake front property and they are as nasty as the say.

I could be wrong that the animal at cheney was a nutria, I was just told it was some other big rodent from SA. So scratch what I said above.

[Gisteppo]

There is one simple distinction between a nutria and a muskrat.

Nutria are HUGE! We have a thriving muskrat population at our house (requires filling of low spots in the yard every year), and there is no mistaking them with nutria.

E