Oregon Fauna

I had never heard of nutria before moving to the Pacific NW... I'm sure they have them in other regions, but it was something unknown to me previously. Here in Oregon, they're pretty much a rodent pest similar to raccoons. In fact, they are similar to raccoons in many undesirable qualities; I have heard of them taking on cats in a fight... and winning, they can often denude a pond of its stock of fish, and I don't know for a fact, but my guess is that they can also carry many of the same diseases as other rodents.

My reason for writing about them at this time is that for about the last month or so, every time Chris & I come home from work we both see nutria out in the green space down by the creek near hour house. Sometimes its not just one, but sometimes two or three of them all out munching on whatever they can find in the grass. I have never seen them in our greenspace before this year and now we see them every day. I'm not sure what in their local eco-system has changed, but it's not a change I'm especially fond of - I fear for the neighborhood cats.

From a distance a nutria looks similar to a beaver - OK, kinda cute, but then when you get up closer you notice one big difference: Nutria have giant, bald, rat-like tails. Ewww!!! Nutria can get up to 25 lbs - about twice the size of a normal house cat - no wonder they can take them on and win. When I used to live in Texas we used to always talk about rats the size of small dogs... here in Oregon, we actually have them! And see them in our green space every day!