It resembles a small beaver or very large rat, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service would like to see more of them go into gumbo. Nutrias, semi-aquatic rodents native to South America, are an invasive species found in around 18 states, including California, where they have reappeared after they were thought to have been eradicated in the 1970s, the Guardian reports. In a news release for National Invasive Species Awareness Week last month, Erin Huggins at FWS said their meat "is lean, mild, and tastes like rabbit." Others have compared the taste to turkey.
Nutrias, also known as coypus or swamp rats, were brought to the US for the fur trade but have been present in the wild, especially along the Gulf Coast, since at least the 1940s. They eat around a quarter of their body weight a day, which can devastate wetlands. "Their nonstop munching and burrowing destroy the plants that keep marshes stable, leading to erosion, loss of habitat, and wetlands that look like something out of a disaster movie," FWS said in a Facebook post, describing them as "invasive and delicious."
Robbie Carter, organizer of the annual Louisiana Nutria Rodeo, tells the New York Times that hunters show up with "truckloads" of nutria carcasses for the event, which features a nutria toss competition—and a cook-off. "You have about six or seven teams," he says. "They made tacos, they made gumbo, they made sloppy joes using fresh nutria meat." Huggins said eating invasive species helps, but it's "not a complete solution and should be combined with other conservation efforts to effectively control these species." Other species on FWS' "Eat the Invaders" list include invasive carp and the green iguana, or "chicken of the trees." (More nutria stories.)
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