'I'm invasive and delicious': Federal officials push public to eat these rodents

An invasive, furry rodent is destroying swamps and marshland in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and the Central Valley and some wildlife officials have pushed for a new solution to saving wetlands: eat the invaders.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service debuted a new slogan for nutria — 3-foot-long, fur-covered rodents with yellow buck teeth — for national invasive species awareness last week: “Save a Swamp, Sauté a Nutria.”

Nutria, rodents originally from South America, have been eating their way through delta vegetation. The mammals can eat up to 25% of their body weight — between 15 and 20 pounds for full-grown nutria — in a single day.

Federal wildlife authorities advised those in states with nutria populations to check local regulation for hunting rules and “capture and then ultimately, cook these nuisance critters.”

Paywall: https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/i-m-invasive-delicious-feds-push-public-20209616.php

According to California Department of Fish and Wildlife, nutria were brought to California for their fur in the 1930s, but were largely released upon the collapse of the fur trade in the 1940s. They were also released as a way of controlling aquatic vegetation, before “subsequent ecological impacts” prompted efforts to eradicate the invasive species— which are smaller than beavers and larger than groundhogs, and often mistaken for both.