Barbara Minden, age 12, of Seattle, Wash. for her question:
What is a nutria?
Nutria pelts are often treated to imitate luxurious beaver and used to make soft fur coats, collars and other trimmings. The animals which yield this silky fur are called either nutrias or coypus and their native home is South America, The furry fellows have been so successful in the fur business that they have been imported and we now find nutria ranches in the swampy regions of New Jersey and Louisiana.
Coypu is the Indian name for the furry animal. The Spanish named him nutria from their word for otter, though he is no relative of the true otter, However, he has one trait in common with the otter he loves the water and that luxurious coat of his was designed for an aquatic life.
Mr. Coypu is a rodent, a large cousin of the rats and mice. He may tip the scales at nine pounds and grow to be two feet long, plus an other twelve inches of ratty tail. His nose is round and stubby. not at all like the sharp nose of his ratty cousins, and his small round ears are folded close to his chunky head. His face bears a strong resemblance to that of the guinea pig, who is also one of his cousins.
To look at him in his native haunts, you would never think that this animal had any value in the fur trade. As he shakes himself
To look at him in his native haunts, you would never think that this animal had any value in the fur trade. As he shakes himself„ coming from the water, he is a very shaggy, bedraggled sight. But we see only the outer guard hairs of his coat. These are long and tough, designed to drain off the water from an undercoat of dense, short silky fur. The guard hairs make the soft under fur water proof and it is the soft . undercoat which is used in the fur trade. It ranges in color from buff to almost black.
The coypu is a vegetarian, preferring to dine on water weeds and plants which grow near the swamps and streams. His back feet are webbed and he is an excellent swimmer.
If he had a choice, ha would never leave the swampy backwaters of the Amazon and various other streams of tropical and subtropical South America. When transported to mare northerly climatasp he still continues to feed on watery vegetation. But very often the supply does not meat his needs, for he is a hungry fellow. On several occasions he has run out of food and raided the nearby crops and gardens. Sad to say, the poor hungry fellow has been mistaken for a large rat and treated unfairly.
Mr, and Mrs. Coypu share a burrow in a muddy bank near their favorite stream. When the babies era very young, Mamma takes them but riding onher back: She shows team the water and all the places where coypus can find good things to eat. She may often be seen swimming along with her wide eyed youngsters sitting on her furry back.