Disease ridden rat-like creatures with bright orange teeth are spreading panic in California as their population explodes.
Nearly 1,000 nutria – an up to 4ft vector of tuberculosis – have been caught in the San Francisco Bay Area so far this year.
Also known as coypu, a population explosion further up the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in Contra Costa County is causing concern.
There are fears their burrowing and feeding habits could wipe out farm animals and household pets, while even causing flooding.
Despite their ‘shaggy and unappealing’ yellow-brain hair, a lush but hidden undercoat makes them popular for clothing, according to National Geographic.
That’s how the mammals, native to South America, ended up in the USA where they have been farmed since 1899.
Since the collapse of the fur market in the early 1940s, wild populations have boomed, becoming established in at least 15 states.
California has imposed strict controls, banning their transport or importation without permission because of how invasive they are.
More than 5,000 have been killed in the state since the first – a pregnant female – was discovered in March 2017.
Female nutria can have two or three litters every year, giving birth to as many as eight young each time.
They only stay with their mothers for a month or two before venturing off to feed, breed and spread disease by themselves.
Each of them consumes up to a quarter of their 17kg bodyweight every day, ‘but they waste and destroy up to 10 times as much’, Krysten Kellum, a spokesperson for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, said.
The department’s website warns: ‘Nutria do not construct dens, they burrow, frequently causing water-retention or flood control levees to breach, weakening structural foundations, and eroding banks.’
Often, they harm pets, livestock and nature in the process – and not just because they’re infected with tapeworms, tuberculosis and waterborne diseases.
Speaking at the time of their first discovery, a department spokesperson said: ‘We cannot have nutria reproducing in the delta.
‘The threat to California’s economy is too great.’
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