Curtailing the coypu
Of all the creatures that ever wandered into our village, I would think that the coypu was the strangest that I ever witnessed. Originating from South America, the coypu is a semiaquatic rodent that was brought to the UK in 1929 to be farmed for its fur. At that time, it was a valuable fashion accessory known as nutria.
It wasn’t long before there were escapees from farms in Sussex, Devon, Hampshire and Norfolk, and by the 1930s the coypu had begun to breed rapidly in the wild. An adult female could carry at least two litters each year and, with up to 13 young in each litter, their numbers simply rocketed.
For some reason, it appears that the coypu reproduced far better in the wild than they ever did in the captivity and protection of the nutria farms.
These giant vegetarians had no natural
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