Invasive Species

Nutria

Nutria are large, semi-aquatic rodents native to South America.  The species is now established in 17 states and causes extensive damage to wetlands, agricultural crops, and structural foundations such as dykes and roads.  The rodents may also threaten human health and safety and serve as a reservoir for tularemia and other diseases.  WS is leading the first large-scale North American effort to eradicate a mainland population on the Delmarva Peninsula in Maryland where the rodents have devastated coastal Chesapeake Bay marshes.  In cooperation with the Department of Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Tudor Farms (a 6000-acre private wildlife management area) and 300 private landowners, WS has completed the initial nutria removal from more than 150,000 acres of coastal marsh in Maryland.  The Agency is now expanding the search for established populations in major tributaries leading into the region.  The Agency’s wildlife specialists have developed and refined new removal techniques and have partnered with USGS to develop new detection and monitoring techniques including remote triggered cameras, call-back surveys, and other means of detecting low density populations.  Through careful population monitoring, APHIS has successfully prevented the re-infestation of this area, and marsh grasses and native muskrat populations are recovering throughout the previously-impacted area. 

For more information:

• What Wildlife Services is doing to address the threats
• What Wildlife Services’ National Wildlife Research Center is learning about this species
• Information About the Species:  Nutria