Invasive 20-pound rodents continue to spread in the Bay Area (nutria, kali-fornia)

SF Gate ^ | 10-2-24 | Amanda Bartlett

[dynachrome]

Close to a thousand nutria have been hunted down in California this year alone, and wildlife officials are urging people to share reports of the invasive, 2.5-foot-long rodents in the Bay Area as recent sightings caught on camera show they’ve spread to Contra Costa County, posing a risk to a critical watershed.

Krysten Kellum, a spokesperson for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Bay Delta Region, and Matthew Slattengren, Contra Costa County agriculture commissioner, both confirmed the discovery in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to SFGATE, as first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle. (The Chronicle and SFGATE are both owned by Hearst but have separate newsrooms.)

The wildly destructive rodents’ presence is cause for widespread concern. Now that they’ve made their way into the delta, which helps channel water to cities and farms across the entire state, it will be easier for them to disperse into other regions. Once there, they’ll continue tearing through wetland habitat, lead to significant losses in crops, and “weaken levees to the point of failure” as a result of their burrowing, Slattengren explained in an email.

[dynachrome]

I thought they welcomed invasive species.

[ClearCase_guy]

Rodents Of Unusual Size? I don’t think they exist.

[AndyTheBear]

Rodents Of Unusual Size? I don’t think those exist.

[Cowman]

The Roadkill guys took a trip to Alaska
In an early eposode. when they crossed the Canada Alaska customs they declared they had some fireworks with them and wanted to know if they had to get rid of them ...The border agent said “ your’e in the USA now not California!

[blitz128]

lol my first thought as well
So movies lead the way, kind of terrifying

[blitz128]

Only if they can figure out how to get these to vote demonrat

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

I know a guy who sells these high-class nutria fur hats.

[Flag_This]

Maybe ship some invasive Burmese pythons from Florida over to California and put them to work.

[Omnivore-Dan]

Maybe they should pit illegal and invasive aliens against invasive species. Stop funding aliens and let them eat the nutria and use the fur for clothing. When all the nutria are gone and the aliens begin to starve they’ll be gone also. Well, it was a thought anyway.

[OldHarbor]

I knew a guy who trapped them and sold the pelts to someone in NYC

They used to be widespread here .

They have declared jihad on them and I haven’t seen one in about 10 years. They were rife 20-30 years ago. If there was a pond or canal, they were fat dumb and happy. Now, nary a nutria.

[EQAndyBuzz]

“Rodents Of Unusual Size? I don’t think they exist.”

Nice gratuitous Princess Bride reference.

[SMARTY]

Probably brought here to breed and provide food for our new neighbors

[mewzilla]

Paging Jinmy Carter!

[mewzilla]

From Wiki...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter_rabbit_incident

[AZJeep]

Delta Smelt is now toast!

[OldHarbor]

Fat ass swamp rats is what they are .

Atlantic Coast

An eradication program on the Delmarva Peninsula, between Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Coast, where nutria once numbered in the tens of thousands and had destroyed thousands of hectares of marshland, had nearly succeeded by 2012.In September 2022 government officials announced that nutria have been completely eradicated on the Maryland Eastern Shore.

In Louisiana, a claimed environmentally sound solution is the killing of nutria to make dog food treats as per Wikipedia.

In Italy, instead, the popular name is, as in North America and Asia, nutria, but it is also called castorino 'little beaver', by which its fur is known in Italy. In Swedish, the animal is known as sumpbäver 'marsh/swamp beaver'. In Brazil, the animal is known as ratão-do-banhado 'big swamp rat', nútria, or caxingui

[MayflowerMadam]

“Rodents Of Unusual Size? I don’t think they exist.”

Rodents of unusual size from San Francisco? Nancy Pelosi and kaMAla Harris are larger than your typical rodent.

[MayflowerMadam]

“I know a guy who sells these high-class nutria fur hats.”

George Costanza had one, IIRC.

[Sirius Lee]

Can't we at least get the Haitians to eat them for now? You know, before we catch and release as many of them back to their native soil?

Both I mean.

[Antihero101607]

I cannot remember the source, but I’ve read one claim that nutria isn’t bad eating. Same with the wild hogs.