Louisiana Once Paid $8.59 for a Nutria Pelt. Now It Pays $6 a Tail

Nutria, a big orange-toothed rodent from South America, were brought to Louisiana for their fur in the 1930s. For decades the fur trade kept them in check. When the market collapsed, the nutria ate the marsh. An invasive species documentary. Coastal Louisiana lost more than 2,000 square miles of land between 1932 and 2016 (USGS), from levees, canals, sinking land, rising seas, and one animal with orange teeth. Nutria dig up the roots that hold the marsh together, breed two to three times a year, and their young can swim within hours of birth. In 1976 Louisiana trappers took 1.8 million nutria pelts, worth about $15.7 million. In 1981 a pelt peaked at $8.59. Then fashion turned away from fur, the trappers left the marsh, and aerial surveys in 1998–99 found around 100,000 acres of damaged wetland. Maryland chose a different path: a 20-year, ~$30 million project with detection dogs removed more than 14,000 nutria, and in September 2022 the Delmarva Peninsula was declared nutria-free. Louisiana pays trappers instead, $6 a tail today, and in the 2024–25 season 225 trappers turned in 357,015 tails. ⏱ CHAPTERS 0:00 Thousands of Nutria in the Marsh 1:01 A Rodent From South America 2:01 Louisiana's Coastal Marsh Is Shrinking 2:48 Meet the Nutria: Orange Teeth, Roots and Litters 4:45 The Fur Rush of the 1930s 6:26 The Hot Sauce Legend vs. the Records 8:03 Alligators, Winter, Disease: Nothing Stopped Them 9:29 The Numbers: 1.8 Million Pelts in One Season 10:28 The Fur Market Collapses 10:55 100,000 Acres Eaten 11:25 The Real Culprit: The Price of a Pelt 12:20 Burrows in the Levees 12:53 Maryland's Blackwater Marsh 14:02 Detection Dogs and the Last Nutria 14:37 Why Louisiana Can't Do the Same 15:56 $4, $5, $6 a Tail 16:30 Nutria on the Menu? Chefs and Dog Treats 17:09 2024–25: 357,015 Tails 17:39 Two States, Two Bills 18:09 Sources & Credits