Worldwide Distribution, Spread of, and Efforts to Eradicate the Nutria
(Myocastor coypus)
East Asia
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China: Introduced into China in the early
1960s for fur farming. There are no reports of escapes into the wild ( Xie,
written commun., 1999). Nutria are also being exported from China to other countries
for fur farming (Kanwanich, 1998).
Japan: Introduced into Japan in 1910 (Miura, 1976).
The Japanese military encouraged breeding of nutria on small fur farms because
of the high quality of nutria pelts (Miura, 1976). When the pelt price dropped,
the nutria were either killed or released (Miura, 1976). Since 1963, nutria
have been hunted as an eradication/control method (Miura, 1976). Japan’s
largest concentration of nutria occur in the Okayama prefecture (Miura, 1976).
South Korea: Nutria have been documented in
South Korea in Han and others (1999). The date of introduction and present status
are unknown.
Thailand: The government of Thailand views nutria
as a problem (Kanwanich, 1998). Nutria imported from China in 1993 for breeding
and by 1998 were seen in the wild (Kanwanich, 1998). Some have been eaten by
the local population, but no organized control program has been implemented
(Kanwanich, 1998). The government prohibited importing additional animals into
the country (Kanwanich, 1998). |
Africa - East Asia - Europe
- Central Asia and Middle East - North
America - South America
U.S. Department of the Interior |
U.S. Geological Survey