We support our Publishers and Content Creators. You can view this story on their website by CLICKING HERE.

A “monster” with a “dark side” was reportedly putting the San Francisco Bay Area at risk as an invasive, disease-carrying species of rodent measured in feet was being hunted by the thousands.

Plaguing the Golden State for at least seven years, the nutria or coypu, a herbivore indigenous to South America, was recently discovered in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in Contra Costa County. Now, officials were warning about the “serious damage” the rat-like creatures measuring up to three-and-a-half feet from snout to tail could cause.

In late September, the Contra Costa County Department of Agriculture’s agricultural commissioner Matthew Slattengren told the San Francisco Chronicle how the species posed a risk to crops and waterways as they were known to weaken levees “to the point of failure.”

“Behind that cute exterior lies a monster,” cautioned the California Department of Water Resources earlier this year in a post featuring the rodent’s bright orange teeth. “Beware of the dark side of the nutria. They may look harmless, but they are invasive rodents that have the ability to destroy wetlands and damage levees.”

The threat posed by the “two-faced creatures” was further detailed on the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s (CDFW) website that the rodents that were hosts to tuberculosis, septicemia and tapeworms, “do not construct dens, they burrow, frequently causing water-retention or flood control levees to breach, weakening structural foundations, and eroding banks.”

With body lengths reaching up to two feet and tails growing as long as one-and-a-half feet, nutria were said to weigh as much as 20 pounds with the capacity to consume 25% of their body weight every day while damaging even more of their ecosystem.

The highly destructive species had no set breeding season and a single female was said to be able to birth as many as 27 offspring throughout one year.

As a result, with no natural predator in the region, CDFW accounted for 5,171 nutria “taken” across California as of Oct. 3, with figures dating back to March 2017 when the first pregnant female had been located in Merced County.

Thus far in 2024, there had been 1,113 nutria “taken” with three months remaining in the year; nearly as many as the 1,239 recorded in 2020.

At 2,527, Merced County recorded the highest number of nutria “taken” by the state whereas Contra Costa County accounted for two. San Joaquin, with 110, ranked fifth behind Fresno, Stanislaus and Solano with 997, 985 and 486 respectively.

“We cannot have nutria reproducing in the delta,” CDFW spokesperson Peter Tira told SFGate. “The threat to California’s economy is too great.”

While Contra Costa County had managed to hunt down two nutria, Krysten Kellum, spokesperson for the CDFW’s Bay Delta Region, told SFGate, “We have had additional detections of nutria on camera in that area over the last month, but with no additional captures.”

Locals were asked to report sightings to the CDFW to “help in their eradication effort.”

Kevin Haggerty
Latest posts by Kevin Haggerty (see all)

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.