Invasive Species

“Invasive species are plants, animals, or pathogens that are non-native (or alien) to the ecosystem under consideration and whose introduction causes or is likely to cause harm.”

This is a definition found on the Internet. This politically correct blog is concerned with a specific critter, and not the two-legged species whose presence is generating toxic arguments among the French populace.  In the southern region of France, around the marshy Camargue, a foreign mammal has attracted plenty of attention.  If French people are unenthusiastically getting used to its presence, foreigners particularly Americans, Northern Europeans and Australians find it peculiar because it is unknown to them.

It is a rodent twice the size of a muskrat, and can weigh up to ten kilograms.  It is semiaquatic and when swimming, commonly mistaken with a beaver, with similar size, head and fur color.  However, tails are different, broad and scaly for the beaver and rat-like for the rodent.  This mistake is easy to make because European beavers are native to the Rhone region north of Camargue.  In France, the beaver is a protected species.  Unlike beavers, this intruder is omnivorous and active day and night, swimming in rivers, foraging and burrowing in marshes, wet lands and river banks.  Its feeding behavior and breeding performance are very destructive.  It eats up to 25% of its body weight in one day.  The female can become pregnant a day after giving birth.  As a result, these rodents have quickly expanded their territory; now they can be spotted in 70% of the country.  It is a harmful invasive species, in other word, a pest. 

                                                                     Beaver

Its French name is ragondin, a made-up name because it was unknown in Europe before the 19^th century.  Myocastor coypus is its scientific name.  In North America, it has two names: coypu and nutria for furriers.  Myocastor coypus is a native of South America, namely Argentina and Bolivia.  Coincidentally, during her many trips to Argentina, this blogger has never seen any coypus there.  Now, it seems that they are more common in the south of France than in their home country.  In France, no agency has carried out a head count, but the ragondin population is estimated around 400,000.

                                                                      Ragondin

The ragondin is an accidental invader.  It was brought to France in the late 19^th century during the bourgeois fur craze.  Ragondins are easy to raise in captivity; on the other hand, castors, which have a similar fur have to be trapped in the wild.  Dead and skinned, a ragondin can again be mistaken for a beaver.  Its soft and thick fur, either plucked or sheared, looks very much like that of a beaver.  If some ragondins escaped from the fur farms, the majority were let loose in the 1930s during the depression when business lost its luster.

The ragondins of the south of France feel very much at home.  Because they have so few predators, they are laid-back and self-confident.  Foxes have to get wet first in order to snatch baby ragondins from their den; this opportunist animal prefers to look for easier preys.  Venturing out at night, the most adventurous ragondins often end up as road kill.  Ragondins have become a tourist attraction.  On the river bank of Sommieres, a small medieval city in the Languedoc region in the south of France, they can be seen going about their business unhurried and relaxed.  Some people even feed them.  Their bright orange front teeth make them look cute.

I must admit having a soft spot for ragondins, probably out of guilt.  In the mid-1980s, in pre-PETA[1] era, I bought my first fur coat to keep warm during the freezing New York City winters.  It was sheared nutria, in other word, it was made of ragondin skins.  

This blog could be titled The Ragondin’s Revenge.  After having been imported, bred, killed and skinned by men for vanity purpose, the critter is now colonizing and destroying its tormentors’ environment with the blessing of some animal lovers.  Eradication in such a grand scale is probably unworkable.  But in a country with a 23% youth unemployment rate, trapping ragondins for a reward could attract young men with time and energy to spare.  No experience needed.

                                                         Ragondin or beaver?

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[1] People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.