Coypus - friend or foe - Worldwide Wildlife and Environment Forums

paul m · #1 (**permalink**) 07-02-2008, 04:52 PM

Black has up-loaded some pictures of coypus:

... from Argentina.... which surprised me because I'd always taken them to be Eurasian. But no, apparently exported from South America to most of the world:
http://infao5501.ag5.mpi-sb.mpg.de:8...9149.xml&style

I've seen them in southern France and elsewhere where they don't seem to be a difficulty but when they established on the Norfolk Broads in UK they were definitely a problem and had to be eliminated.

Just wondered if anyone else has difficulties with them?

black · #2 (**permalink**) 08-02-2008, 11:46 AM

Lake Naivasha in Kenya had problems with them in the 1970's when a load of coypu escaped from a fur farm. They set up home on the lake and munched through the buds and rhizomes of the waterlillies. The lillies were home to jacanas and other waterbirds. However I think the coypus just disappeared sometime in the mid 1980s.

frostfire · #3 (**permalink**) 08-02-2008, 02:57 PM

I'm not sure about Holland, but I do know that in Flanders (the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium) there is a program in place to gradually eliminate the coypus totally. They started this operation in 2002, after their numbers in Flanders and the bordering countries started to rapidly increase. Once they have succeeded they will continue this program of trapping them around the borders, so that they don't re-establish in Belgium.
At the moment they are mainly found in the part of the Maas that forms the border with the Netherlands, but have been seen all over Flanders.

So as they are so close to us, I take it that coypi are found in Holland, but I haven't heard that we are experiencing problems with them. Maybe Arp or Goosey can help out there?

Guy F · #4 (**permalink**) 08-02-2008, 05:07 PM

They seemed to fit in quite nicely in the Camargue, but I suppose they may be causing some damage to the banks and vegetation there.
Here's a shot of one from there:

As nice as they are, I guess they should be removed if they're causing damage to an area and it's wildlife.
Guy

ericrovve · #5 (**permalink**) 09-02-2008, 08:32 AM

They really get huge in the Carmargue, the size of a large dog and do a lot of damage to dike walls and vegetation

Pudding4brains · #6 (**permalink**) 09-02-2008, 04:08 PM

Hi All,

Quote:

Originally Posted by frostfire

I'm not sure about Holland ... Maybe Arp or Goosey can help out there?

Personally I've never seen one, just the remotely similar (from my point of view) Muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus). Both are being actively hunted, most of all because they form a thread for our dikes.

Waarneming.nl lists the beast as "fairly common" - they have an "amateur sightings" distributionmap too.

Cheers!
Arp