Animalia > Chordata > Mammalia > Rodentia > Myocastoridae > Myocastor > Myocastor coypus

Myocastor coypus (nutria)

Synonyms: Mastonotus popelairi; Mus coypus (homotypic); Myocaster coypus; Myopotamus coypu; Myopotamus coypus
Language: French

Wikipedia Abstract

The coypu (from Spanish coipú, from Mapudungun kóypu; Myocastor coypus), also known as the river rat or nutria, is a large, herbivorous, semiaquatic rodent and the only member of the family Myocastoridae. Originally native to subtropical and temperate South America, it has since been introduced to North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, primarily by fur ranchers. Although it is still valued for its fur in some regions, its destructive feeding and burrowing behaviors make this invasive species a pest throughout most of its range.
View Wikipedia Record: Myocastor coypus

Infraspecies

Myocastor coypus bonariensis
Myocastor coypus coypus
Myocastor coypus melanops
Myocastor coypus sanctaecruzae

Invasive Species

View ISSG Record: Myocastor coypus

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
8
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
33
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 17.76
EDGE Score: 2.93
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Gestation [2]  4 months 11 days
Litter Size [2]  6
Litters / Year [2]  2
Maximum Longevity [2]  9 years
Nocturnal [1]  Yes
Snout to Vent Length [4]  23 inches (58 cm)
Water Biome [1]  Lakes and Ponds, Rivers and Streams, Brackish Water
Weaning [2]  3 months 1 day
Adult Weight [2]  17.306 lbs (7.85 kg)
Birth Weight [2]  225 grams
Diet [3]  Herbivore
Diet - Plants [3]  100 %
Forages - Ground [3]  100 %
Female Maturity [2]  5 months 2 days
Male Maturity [2]  5 months 2 days

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
Atlantic Forest Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay No
Chilean Winter Rainfall-Valdivian Forests Chile No
Tropical Andes Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela No

Prey / Diet

Prey / Diet Overlap

Predators

Consumers

Range Map

External References

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 2de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 3Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 4Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 5Food habits of the coypu, Myocastor coypus, and its impact on aquatic vegetation in a freshwater habitat of NW Italy, Claudio PRIGIONI, Alessandro BALESTRIERI and Luigi REMONTI, Folia Zool. – 54(3): 269–277 (2005)
♦ 6Myocastor coypus, Charles A. Woods, Luis Contreras, Gale Willner-Chapman, and Howard P. Whidden, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 398, pp. 1-8 (1992)
♦ 7"Feeding habits of Geoffroy's cat (Leopardus geoffroyi) in southern Brazil", Kleisson S. Sousa, A. Bager, Mammalian Biology - Zeitschrift für Säugetierkunde Volume 73, Issue 4, 15 July 2008, Pages 303–308
♦ 8Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
♦ 9International Flea Database
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0