Thames Blog

20-pound rodent may soon call SC home

This just in from my official news source in Columbia, S.C. WISTV, the local NBC affiliate.

(Columbia-AP) Jan. 23, 2005 - South Carolina wildlife officials are concerned that a large, rat-like rodent called the nutria may soon be showing up in the Savannah and Pee Dee River basins.

The furry, bucktoothed rodent looks like a mix between a beaver and a rat and can weigh up to 20 pounds.

They have become a nuisance in other southern states, because they eat marsh plants and dig through dams.

Nutrias were brought to Louisiana as a source of fur, but they've gotten to be so much of a problem in that state's wetlands that hunters and trappers get a $4 bounty for each tail they produce, and residents are encouraged to eat them.

A government Web site's recipes include stuffed nutria hindquarters and nutria chili.

The rodents already are making themselves at home in Georgia and North Carolina.

Note from Editor: My gosh, please don't let the State of South Carolina start publishing recipes on how to cook 20 lb rats! I have enough to live down already!

Bandit

Posted by Bandit at January 23, 2005 06:45 PM