Coypu Information
These rodents have a price on their tail
The fight to control the Indre's feral population continues with a bounty offered for coypu.
The Association of Management and Regulation of Predators in the Indre (AGRIP) is still giving 1 euro per tail for capturing these destructive rodents.
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Coypu (les ragondins) have been unwelcome residents in the French countryside since the 19th century when they were first introduced for their fur. The coypu is a large semi-aquatic rodent which is native to South America. Now mainly unknown in the British Isles, it was actually introduced to England in 1929 when fur farms were set up in Sussex, Hampshire, Devon and Norfolk.
The coypu is the only species in the genus Myocastor and is sometimes given its own family: Myocastoridae. It is herbivorous, eating grasses, reeds and even water lilies, and has been introduced from South America to every continent except Australia and Antarctica. The coypu subspecies introduced around the world was M. coypus bonariensis. This subspecies is from the more northern (subtropical) part of their range.
The name coypu originated from the Amerindian Araucanian language word "kóypu" and was adopted by American Spanish as Coipo. In North America and Asia, the term nutria is more commonly used for Myocastor coypus.
The coypu looks something like a very large rat. Adults can be over 10kg in weight, and 40–60 cm in body length, with a 30–45 cm tail. They can also be identified by their bright orange-yellow incisor teeth (unlike rats, which have brownish yellow incisors). The nipples of female coypu are on their back. This allows their young to feed while the female is in the water.
Breeding is continuous throughout the year, and the gestation period is four and a half months, with 2 - 9 young per litter.
Coypu can also be mistaken for another widely dispersed semi-aquatic rodent in France, the muskrat. However, the muskrat is smaller, more tolerant of cold climates, and has a flattened tail that it uses to assist in swimming, whereas the tail of a coypu is round.
As demand for coypu fur has declined, they have since become pests (nuisibles) in many areas, destroying aquatic vegetation, irrigation systems, eroding river banks and draining ponds and lakes, displacing native animals.
In addition to direct environmental damage, coypu are the host for a nematode parasite (strongyloides myopotami) that can infect the skin of humans; this is known as "nutria itch". Leptospirosis, a debilitating respiratory illness, is another disease that can be transmitted through infected water.
During cold winters, coypu often suffer frostbite on their tails leading to infection or death.
Populations of coypu under these circumstances often contract and even become locally or regionally extinct (as in the Scandinavian countries during the 1980s).
The farmers and fishing people of the Indre are hoping that this may happen naturally; however given the widespread population in the departement, the battle continues.
Contact 02 54 22 15 98 for further information, or go to www.invs.sante.fr