Nutria: The Good, the Bad, and the Nutritious
It was a brisk winter morning, while me and two others we were headed directly into enemy territory. As Oregon State students, “enemy territory” is an appropriate name for Eugene, Oregon. We were headed down to Eugene to restore the riparian zone of the McKenzie River by planting willow saplings along the banks to restore its degraded levees. Shooting down highway 99, we were engulfed by impermeable fog, visually restricted to the road and a seemingly endless ocean of grass to our sides, visually filtered by perspiring car windows. It felt like we were in a temporary state of limbo. A couple of my friends in the car with me mentioned how they were excited to plant the willow trees in that they would aid beavers, their favourite species. This piqued my interest as I still hadn’t seen a wild beaver before. Ironically, something materialized through the fog on the road just as beavers were brought up in our conversation. It was about the size of a microwave, had dark brown fur, and I could see an orangish-white spot on its mouth where the teeth would be. “Beaver! Beaver!” everyone in the car exclaimed. As we approached, we noticed how it was sprawled out on the road making us realize it had been road killed. Everyone’s smiles melted into frowns as they placed their hands on the foggy windows to mourn the fallen beaver. As we passed by, we noticed a protruding rat-like tail instead of the signature beaver paddle tail which I was excited to see. “Ahh it’s just a nutria,” said John in the front seat. Everyone returned to their normal seating positions as if nothing had happened. I was baffled by the turnaround of their sad, puppy dog faces to emotionless statues due to this beaver imposter with a rat tail known as a Nutria.
I had never heard of or seen a nutria before, and it saddened me to see this large creature be disregarded so harshly as it eventually disappeared into the fog behind us. Soon after, John mentioned how he and his parents absolutely despise them. “They’re the whole reason we’re driving down here at eight in the morning to plant trees, they’re invasive,” John chuckled with his eyes glued to the road. “Might as well put it to good use, apparently nutria is pretty tasty too.” Zahra was sitting in the passenger seat next to him and glanced over, responding with a brief comment along the lines of “well considering they look exactly like beavers, they must do somewhat the same thing in the ecosystem, and who the f*%! would want to eat one of those?” As this conversation unfolded before me, I sat silently in the backseat, my mind continued to dwell on the “rat beaver” we had passed on the side of the highway as a hurricane of questions about them rattled my brain. Hearing these two opposing views on the nutria, and how they’re occasionally eaten, made me interested in discovering the truth about them. In a way, I obligated to conduct further research and learn more about nutria considering the first time I laid eyes on one it was dead. Are they harmful, beneficial, or neutral in our ecosystems, and do people really eat them? I first wanted to see nutria through the eyes of a professional, so I talked with Catherine Normand, a biologist for the Louisiana Coastwide Nutria Control Program, part of the state’s Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Alligator and Fur Division.
As a head biologist for a state-wide nutria control program, I wanted to get well-rounded information about nutria as well as what Catherine’s job consists of. “I got my masters through studying the effects of feral cats on the environment,” she says. “Through this, I learned how destructive nutrias are and decided to focus on them,” I explained my interesting first encounter with a nutria, and how we all thought we’d come to a dead beaver but as soon as we realized it was a nutria, nobody cared. She got a good laugh out of it and was able to recall the first time she came across a nutria herself. “In my early 20’s I was a vet clinic and every week an eco-tourism company would come in,” Catherine said happily. “One of their guys had pet nutrias for education and I thought they were just the cutest little guys.” I could tell she had a soft spot for nutrias and laughed at the irony of her having a career that focuses on “harvesting” them. After a little bit of an icebreaker, I wanted to get down to the nitty-gritty and see just how harmful nutrias really are to the environment.
I proceeded to tell Catherine about how some of my peers (John and his parents) are annoyed with nutrias because of how they ruin their property. “The problem with nutrias is how much they eat and how they do it” she stated. “Wherever nutria exists like coastlines, levees, and marshes, they burrow in the ground to eat the tubes and shoots of aquatic and riparian vegetation,” says Catherine. “This ruins the structural integrity of waterways and doesn’t allow structural vegetation like cypress trees to germinate.” Catherine continued to give me an extensive mini-lecture about the negative impacts of nutria, showing how serious their presence is. “What makes it even harder is that nutrias are really good at reproduction” she chuckles. “As soon as they give birth, their litter can start eating right away and they need to eat a quarter of their body weight per day.” Clearly, nutrias are extremely invasive and see to cause a myriad of problems in areas they exist.
After hearing about how destructive nutria are, I asked Catherine how they got here in the first place. “Back in the late 1800’s nutria was brought here from South America where they are known as “Coypu” to be farmed for fur,” she says. “Nutrias can survive in a variety of habitats whether its fresh or brackish, and waterways in America are suitable and reliable habitat for them.” It seems like nutrias are everywhere and I wanted to see what control methods are practised in Louisiana, where Catherine works. “In order to manage wildlife, I have to work with people,” Catherine said. “I mainly work with Nuisance Wildlife Control Operators who are individuals who obtain a license through us to be able to be contracted by landowners for example to harvest nutria or whatever pest they have.” I thought it was cool that Catherine’s department trains nutria mercenaries. “We have one short window to harvest nutrias each year from February to March, and we do this because if we harvested year-round, our traps would harm other species.” This made sense, but I figured people must be harvesting nutria by themselves, so I asked if the public can harvest nutrias. “Nutrias are considered species of economic value, so people can’t harvest them without a hunting license (bag limit of 5 nutrias per day) or a trappers license (unlimited bag limit).”
As the conversation slowed down, Catherine supplied me with some takeaways on nutria and discussed how their prevalence here is linked to broader issues like climate change. “Nutria will never be eradicated, they’re here to stay,” she said with an exhale. “The job gets harder and harder, especially with climate change” Catherine states. “As the temperature warms, winter intensity decreases which is bad because freezing winters kill off a large portion of nutria.” Hearing how a relationship exists between climate change and nutrias was unexpected. Before Catherine had to go, I remembered John mentioned how nutrias are sometimes eaten so naturally, I had to ask her if this was true. “Here in Louisiana, Cajun culture is known for unique foods and yes nutria is eaten here” Catherine admitted. “The other day I had some nutria jerky and it wasn’t too bad, kinda tastes like a rabbit!” Catherine laughed.
I was very grateful to have been able to speak with Catherine. She provided a wide array of information about nutria, all while preserving a sense of humour and relaxed conversation. It was useful getting a scientific perspective on nutrias, but I wanted to gain a different perspective about them, so I contacted Drew Christie, a renowned writer, animator and illustrator who lives and works in Seattle, Washington.
Drew’s work has been featured on The New York Times, The Huffington Post, The Atlantic, Drawn, Cartoon Brew and more. Nutria is extremely prevalent in the Pacific Northwest where Drew lives, and he has a feature piece on The New York Times about them called “Hi!, I’m a Nutria.” In this “Op-Doc” Drew expresses his opinion on nutrias which mirrors Zahra’s position, of how they are a nonnative species like the other thousands if not millions that passively exist in the states. What attracted me to Drew’s opinion on nutrias was his unique take on explaining them by making the point of view of his Op-Doc as a nutria. Out of all the nutria information I could find, his piece was the only one that was set in this unique point of view. Yes, I know Drew is no fish and wildlife biologist like Catherine, but his humorous reflection on nutrias is accurate to most of society’s perception about them.
Drew mentions how the nutrias or “coypu” are only one of the several nonnatives that live in the Pacific Northwest. “Lots of things are nonnative in the Northwest region,” Drew says. “The American Bullfrog, Eastern Grey Squirrel, House Sparrow, Starling, and one more… all you people!” By “all you people” Drew is referring to all of us out here who are also nonnative to where we live which is virtually all humans at this point. As a nutria, Drew says that although nutrias have a “bad habit of overpopulating areas, overharvesting the edible plants in a small area resulting in the die-off of desirable plant species, it sounds a lot like someone else I know of” (once again referring to humans). Drew’s ethics on nutria and whether they should be criticized is completely valid as we have the right to be here just as much as nutrias do. “I’m here now, we’re here now, let’s just be friends!” Drew the nutria says, “Just pretend I’m an Otter and I’ll pretend you’re a native.” I have no choice but to respect Drew’s argument about nutria. He appealed to both sides of the argument and settled it with a comparison between humans and nutria exhibiting our equal impact on areas we aren’t native to; even so, humans are invasive to the areas which they are native to. This makes you take a second to think, huh? After all this nutria talk, I’ve worked up quite the appetite, which reminds me! Nutrias aren’t only found in our waterways but also on our dinner plates.
Chef Philippe Parola is a chef with over 30 years of experience in active service in the culinary profession. He has his own food operations consulting business and is also head chef of an organization known as SilverFin™ which specializes in bringing unusual foods (primarily invasive species) to the average American’s dinner table. With his motto: “Can’t Beat ’Em, Eat ‘EM!” Philippe Parola is making nutria less invasive by making them more edible. Catherine Normand, the Fish and Wildlife nutria biologist mentioned before has a page in the nutria control program that features Philippe’s recipes. Edmon Mouton and LeAnne Weill are colleagues of Catherine, and state that “Wild nutria are fussy herbivores, eating only the most nutritious parts of Louisiana plants. Their healthy diet gives you one too.” According to Pennington Biomedical Research Center, when compared to turkey, chicken and beef, nutria have the highest protein, least amount of fat and lowest cholesterol per 100 grams. Although Philippe Parola’s motives may seem a bit strange and unconventional, considering how hard it is to effectively control nutria populations, focusing on making nutria a culinary hit may be an effective way in gaining collective action to remove them from our waterways and feeding America. At first, trying to incorporate nutria into our diets may seem off-putting, but if nutrias are popularized in this way, jobs will be created, commercial fisheries will be revitalized, local economies will be stimulated, all while providing an inexpensive and healthy product for consumers.
In retrospective, the nutrias aren’t beavers. Catherine Normand provided extensive information on how nutrias harm the ecosystems they live in. Their abrasive eating habits remove riparian structural vegetation causing levees and banks to give out, their rapid proliferation rate catalyzes degradation and makes harvesting efforts nearly impossible, they compete with other species filling their ecological roles, and ultimately destroy habitat for other native species within the ecosystem. From a scientific standpoint, nutrias are extremely invasive and are considered a threat to the areas they exist in, but perspectives that are more subjective and ethical exist that are just as valid, such as Drew Christie's perception of nutria. Drew takes an unconventional approach when it comes to nutrias but putting himself in the shoe of a nutria, when discussing what should be done with them. He shows how we are just as invasive as nutrias if not worse, and like them, most of us are nonnative as well. Simply put, how would we feel if a species much larger and smarter than us was trapping and hunting humans every winter? He draws a conclusion which Catherine Normand stated too, that nutrias are here to stay. Let’s be real, nutrias will continue to be harvested as far as we can tell, but with the creative recipes that Philippe Parola has created, managing nutria is beneficial to our health in that it restores the ecosystems which we depend on, but it can also directly benefit our health, nutritionally. As we learned earlier, nutria meat is less fatty, has more protein, and less cholesterol per 100 grams than beef, turkey, and chicken.
Hopefully, all of this will help you gain a better perspective and understanding of these mischievous river rats and supply you with some verbal ammunition if you come across an intense nutria debate. I still can’t say I’ve seen a wild beaver before but I’m glad I discovered its doppelganger, the nutria on that cold morning in Eugene. Maybe you’ll stumble upon a nutria someday, and unlike me, maybe it’ll be alive.
