What Is the Natural Habitat of the Nutria Rat?
Nutria are large rodents that resemble a cross between a muskrat and a beaver, possessing the stocky body of the beaver but the long, almost naked tail of the muskrat. Nutria are native to South America but became an invasive species in the U.S. during the 20th century.
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Original Range
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The original South American range of the nutria includes nations such as Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Uruguay and portions of Southern Brazil, according to the United States Fish & Wildlife Service.
U.S. Range
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In the United States, nutria now live in a wide range of states, including those as far west as Washington and Oregon, as far east as New Jersey and throughout much of the Deep South.
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Habitat
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The habitat of the nutria includes marshes, both freshwater and those with brackish water, as well as bayous, drainage ditches and canals, rivers, swamps, ponds and other types of wetlands.
Burrows
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The nutria typically builds its home into the soft mud of a riverbank, providing itself with an entrance above the ground or in the water. They are not above "borrowing" the burrow of other animals, including those of muskrats and beavers.
History
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Nutria came to the U.S. in the beginning of the 1900s, imported by people attempting to establish the creature as part of the fur industry.
Fun Fact
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The National Audubon Society Field Guide to Mammals states that during the 1940s, hurricanes caused flooding that allowed many nutria to escape into the wild, where they established booming populations.
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