Nutria: cute or disgusting?

The first time I saw a Nutria (Myocastor coypus) up close, I wasn’t sure if I was more charmed or disgusted.  They have round chubby bodies and somewhat resemble beavers (which are cute). But unlike the beaver which has a flat paddle-like tail, the nutria has a long, round tail and looks a lot like a giant rat (which is not so cute).  Nutria, also known as “Coypu”, are good swimmers, and are sometimes called “river rats” or “water rats”.

Adult nutria will have a body length of about 50 to 70 centimeters, a tail length of about 35 to 50 centimeters, and weigh 4.5 to 7 kilograms. Originally from South America, nutria were brought to Japan in the late 1930’s as a source of fur for military uniforms and as a possible food item. After the war ended, the demand for farmed nutria evaporated, and many were simply released into the surrounding countryside where they established stable populations.  

Nutria live near bodies of water where they dig nests along the muddy banks and eat vegetation.  In the countryside, they often venture into farms, and are now considered a serious agricultural pest throughout parts of Japan’s Gifu, Aichi, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo, Mie, Tottori, Shimane, Okayama, and Hiroshima prefectures.  They are reported to cause great amounts of crop damage, and the Ministry of the Environment has designated them as an Invasive Alien Species, facilitating eradication efforts by local governments.

These photos show a nutria eating lettuce that was put out to feed swans at Koyoike Pond in Itami City, Hyogo Prefecture.  (All photos on this posting were taken at Koyoike in July and October 2010.)

The video below was recorded at Tennoji Zoo in Osaka.  

You might be able to hear some children mistakenly calling the nutria “Capybara”.  (It seems to me that children at zoos in Japan tend to be much louder than in the United States.)

Despite mass media and local governments’ public information campaigns demonizing the nutria, some people think that the nutria are cute and continue to feed the animals in defiance of signs put up by the city discouraging such behavior. 

Nutria: are they cute?  Or are they disgusting?