I’m Certain The Brown Furry Thing I Saw Was A Nutria—Nutria Links

I’m pretty certain the brown furry thing in the picture is a Nutria.

I took this picture this past may at the Houston National Veteran’s Cemetery.

I wish I had gotten a better picture of the creature, but it scampered away into the pond.

In any case I was close to it as I needed to be.

At first I was uncertain what it was. But I poked around on the internet for a time and came to view that what I had seen was Nutria.

Below is better picture of this creature that also includes some nice ducks. (Photo by J. Patrick Fischer.)

The Nutria is native to South America and was imported to Louisiana in the 1930’s so that a Nutria fur trading trade could take place in the U.S.

Not surprisingly some escaped and now they are all over.

Here are facts about the Nutria from the online Mammals of Texas.

Here are facts and a number of Nutria related links from the National Invasive Species Information Center of the federal government.

You can get an affliction from this varmint called the “Nutria Itch.”

Here is the Nutria Trappers Association.

I’m glad that I when I saw the Nutria it chose to dive into the pond and not instead to charge at me.