Talk:Coypu

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

WikiProject Animals
 Coypu is within the scope of WikiProject Animals, an attempt to better organize information in articles related to animals and zoology. For more information, visit the project page.
Animals Portal
Start This article has been rated as Start-class on the quality scale.
Low This article has been rated as Low-importance on the importance scale.
WikiProject Animals To-do:
Mammals
Mammals Portal
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Mammals, a project to improve Wikipedia's articles on Mammal-related subjects. Please participate by editing the article, and help us assess and improve articles to good and 1.0 standards, or visit the wikiproject page for more details.
Start This article has been rated as Start-class on the quality scale.
??? This article has not yet received a rating on the importance scale.
Assessment comments

I am unsure about the map references regarding the eradication of Coypu in the UK. As far as I know there is a small population in the Norfolk Broads.

I think you'll find that MAFF really DID the job...? --GRM 20:02, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

I'd never heard of it growing up in the UK. First time was when I moved to Oregon.

Snowbound 02:39, 23 January 2007 (UTC)


That photo -- doesn't look like an ALBINO anything...

I would have to agree that that particular nutria doesn't look like an albino but rather a light morph. A quick search on google reveals several photos that look more like albinos to me. Perhaps we can get permission to post one. Katr67 17:44, 16 October 2006 (UTC)
Can we therefore CHANGE the caption on this page???--GRM 20:02, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Coypu Limerick

Just for fun, this limerick by Brendan Beary about the coypu appeared in the Washington Post's Style Invitational on 1 October, 2006. [1]:

The coypu has breasts on her back,
So whenever her pups need a snack
While she floats in the water,
This kin of the otter
Is glad for her roof-mounted rack.

shame it's no relation of otters, but a rodent! --GRM 20:02, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Import

I've heard that the nutria were imported to help irradicate an imported plant that had grown out of control in lousiana (because it had no local natural consumer).Eno-Etile 07:39, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

I have never heard this. In the 1930's many farmers were scammed into buying "pedigree breeding pairs" for about $3,000 each. Beaver were scarce at the time due to over harvest and other factors, and nutria fur was supposed to replace it in the market. Nutria fur never became a great demand item, and when the farmers that expected to get at least $50 for each pelt found out they would get about $1-3, it is speculated that they set them free in disgust. If they were not freed purposefully, fierce storms probably liberated many of them. It is said a great storm in the 1930's destroyed a nutria operation near Tillamook, and that became the root of Oregon's problem. See this ad: [http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa51/Tsarevna303/nutria_scam.jpg Nutria Scam Ad -Tsarevna 23:56, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Sighting of Coypu

Hi! coypus r cute until u see there teeth and they need to live bcuz if they die then it messes up a very big food chain!!!!

I just want to say that I have sighted one Coypu in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in river Ljubljanica.

Have fun.

Jauzi 13:21, 8 December 2006 (UTC) Joze M.

If you want to see coypu, and i've seen numerous, go fishing in France. The little critters undermine the banks by digging large holes thought them and are just a general pain in the backside. They may mess up the food chain in their native lands, but in Europe they are just a pest that needs to be eradicated.

[edit] Hillbilly shootout, mistaken for nutria

Methhead shoots a diver, claiming he thought it was a nutria, hilarious. SchmuckyTheCat 06:32, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

Youch. Glad it was only a .22! 4.249.21.23 15:59, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

Think we saw them in Oxshott Woods Surrey UK ??? Certainly looked like the pictures. Melanie

[edit] Clarification needed on damage

...coypu are believed to have destroyed 7,000 to 8,000 acres of marshland...

The term destroyed needs a lot of clarification. Did the nutria destroy it by eating all of it? By manufacturing, planting, and detonating a whole lot of TNT? Tempshill 06:47, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

The way nutria destroy wetlands: They pull plants out by the roots on the bottom of the river/stream/wetland. They breed proficiently, den in colonies (year round), and tolerate the presence of others leading to high densities of nutria and overgrazing. The plant life of the wetlands are stripped clean, making the soil erode away from that wetland. Without soil plants can no longer grow, so you no longer have a marsh, but a mud-flat at low tide, and a shallow sea at high tide. Eventually tides wash away the mud and you just have ocean. This is what has happened in the gulf coast area, especially Louisiana. When people stopped trapping them in Louisiana because the bounty was lifted, the population exploded, and the damage to wetlands could be seen from space on satellite images. In non-coastal areas the nutria "eat outs" make large bald spots which also erode. Muskrats don't do this, they nibble at plants here and there, but nutria wipe out vegetation in an area and move on to the next. There's an excellent Discovery News video on Youtube about this: Nutria Mash Damage Tsarevna 23:45, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Coypu = "swamp rabbit"?

The coypu is theorized to be the "swamp rabbit" of Jimmy Carter's nightmares.

[edit] Nutria in England

Nutria are considered extinct in England and a couple papers have been published outlining the program. The reason it was successful were: (1) They were in a limited region and their was not possiblity of immigration from outside. (2) The eradication crews had an incintive to get the last nutria. They got paid even after the eradication was completed. (3) They had break in the weather. A couple sever winters knocked the population back significantly.


[edit] Nutria in Scandinavia

They have been observed in Denmark recently, I know this for a fact, and pictures have been taken - very clear ones that show the orange teeth, so there's no doubt. It's in Jutland, so maybe it isn't Scandinavia proper, but they're in Denmark, at least. Whether this is a re-immigration or they've been there all along I don't know, but I suspect the former. But, they're not extinct there at all (anymore?). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.50.126.38 (talk) 00:53, 19 December 2007 (UTC)