The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is not known for its culinary recommendations, but a recent Facebook post has an eye-catching, but perhaps unappetizing photo of a furry nutria along with the line “EAT ME! Please? I’m invasive and delicious.”
The post went on to explain that in celebration of February’s National Invasive Species Awareness Week, people should hunt, catch and cook the large, rat-like semiaquatic creature that is an invasive species in Oregon.
While at it, the federal agency with the mission to protect wildlife hopes everybody adopts the slogan, “Save a Swamp, Sauté a Nutria.” The rodent‘s meat is lean, mild and tastes like rabbit or turkey drumsticks, said the agency.
Native to South America, the hunched bodied nutria with a round, nearly hairless tail and pentadactyl feet was brought to Oregon for fur farming in the 1930s. It began to escape captivity in the 1940s.
Why devour an oversized, wetland-loving rodent? Because it is devouring marshlands.
“Their nonstop munching and burrowing destroy the plants that keep marshes stable, leading to erosion, loss of habitat and wetlands that look like something out of a disaster movie,” according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which also offers an online Eat the Invaders article with information to eat four other invasive species.
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