By Simon J. Levien The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has a suggestion to help curb the growing population of an invasive species that bears a resemblance to a very large rat: Eat them.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service has instructed residents of California to eat a certain rodent that has been called a "giant swamp rat" in efforts to protect the state's marshland.

Nutria can specifically be found along the Gulf Coast, in the Pacific Northwest and in the Southeastern United States. Its exact population, though, is unknown. The rat-like behemoth is larger ...

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service suggests hunting, cooking and eating invasive feral hogs, iguana, carp, Northern Snakehead ...

As the demand for fur declined, nutria populations spread relatively unchecked, establishing populations primarily in marshes, wetlands, and coastal regions. Read Next: Hunting Nutria with the Rat ...

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 ...

Since 2023 more nutria have been taken from Fresno County than any county in California, according to CDFW data. In the ...

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants people to eat more invasive species. You can get nutria, wild pigs, carp and northern ...

EDIRNE, TURKIYE - FEBRUARY 08: A nutria, also known as coypus or swamp rats, swims a river in Edirne ... rodents were brought to the U.S. for the fur trade and now they’re devouring marshlands ...

When the nutria fur market collapsed in the 1940s ... “I'd eat a lot of things but I draw the line at Giant rats,” she wrote on Facebook. Nutria aren’t the only invasive species wildlife ...

The rodent is called a nutria, which is also known as a water rat. The large, semi-aquatic rodent is originally from South America and was brought to the U.S. in 1889 for its fur, according to the ...