The nutria / Coypu - Nutrie říční (Myocastor coypus)

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The nutria / Coypu (Myocastor coypus)
The nutria or coypu is a large, herbivorous, semiaquatic rodent from South America.
Appearance
Weight: 4-9 kg (9-20 lb)
Length: 40-60 cm (16-24 in)
Tail: 30 to 45 cm (12 to 18 in) - sometimes up to 16 to 17 kg (35 to 37 lb)
They have three sets of fur. The guard hairs on the outer coat are three inches long. They have coarse, darkish brown midlayer fur with soft dense grey under fur, also called the nutria.
Three distinguishing features are a white patch on the muzzle, webbed hind feet, and large, bright orange-yellow incisors.
They have approximately 20 teeth with four large incisors that grow during the entirety of their lives.
The orange discoloration is due to pigment staining from the mineral iron in the tooth enamel.
They have prominent 4 inch long whiskers on each side of their muzzle or cheek area.
The mammary glands and teats of female nutria are high on her flanks, to allow their young to feed while the female is in the water.
There is no visible distinction between male and female nutria.
Life
They can live up to 6 years in captivity, but individuals uncommonly live past 3 years old.
A nutria is considered to have reached old age at 4 years old. Male nutria reach sexual maturity as early as 4 months, and females as early as 3 months; however, both can have a prolonged adolescence, up to the age of 9 months. Once a female is pregnant, gestation lasts 130 days, and she may give birth to as few as one or as many as 13 offspring.
The average nutria reproduction is 4 offspring. Female nutria will mate within 2 days after offspring are born. The years of reproduction cycle by litter size.
Females can only produce six litters in her life, rarely seven litters.
A female on average will have two litters a year.
Nutria generally line nursery nests with grasses and soft reeds. Baby nutria are precocial, born fully furred and with open eyes; they can eat vegetation and swim with their parents within hours of birth.
Newborn nutria nurse for seven to eight weeks, after which they leave their mothers.
Nutria have been known to be territorial and aggressive when caught or cornered. They will bite and attack humans and dogs when threatened.
Nutria are mainly crepuscular or nocturnal, with most activity occurring around dusk and sunset with highest activity around midnight. When food is scarce, nutria will forage during the day.
Distribution
Native to subtropical and temperate South America, its range includes Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and the southern parts of Brazil and Bolivia.
Introduced to North America, Europe and Asia, primarily by fur ranchers.
The distribution of nutrias outside South America tends to contract or expand with successive cold or mild winters.
Habitat and feeding
Besides breeding quickly, each nutria consumes large amounts of aquatic vegetation.
An individual consumes about 25% of its body weight daily, and feeds year-round. They eat the base of the above-ground stems of plants, and often dig through soil for roots and rhizomes to eat.
Nutria eat parts and whole plants, and go after roots, rhizomes, tubers and black willow tree bark in the winter. Their creation of "eat-outs", areas where a majority of the above- and below-ground biomass has been removed, produces patches in the environment, which in turn disrupts the habitat for other animals and humans dependent on wetlands and marshes.
They eat cattail, rushes, reeds, arrowheads, flatsedges, cordgrasses and varuious commercial crops.
Most commonly in freshwater marshes and wetlands, but also inhabit brackish marshes and rarely salt marshes.
They either construct their own burrows, or occupy burrows abandoned by beaver, muskrats, or other animals. They are also capable of constructing floating rafts out of vegetation.
Nutria live in partially underwater dens. The main chamber is not submerged underground.
Nutria are considered to be a species that lives in colonies. One male will share a den with three or four females and their offspring. Nutria use "feeding platforms" which are constructed in the water from cut pieces of vegetation supported by a structure like a log or branches.
Commercial use and issues
Local extinction in their native range due to overharvesting led to the development of nutria fur farms in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Farmed nutria often are released or escape as operations become unprofitable. Nutrias from these farms often escaped, or were deliberately released into the wild to provide a game animal or to remove aquatic vegetation.
Following a decline in demand for nutria fur, nutria have since become pests in many areas, destroying aquatic vegetation, marshes, and irrigation systems.
(Wikipedia)
#animals #nature #nutria