Portage Bay and Laurelhurst residents are joining forces with local marina users and the UW to find ways of getting rid of the nutria - water rodents the size of housecats - that are chewing and burrowing through lakeshores, reports the P-I. "Nutria look like the biggest rat you'll ever see," Charles Easterberg of the UW's Department of Environmental and Occupational Health and Sciences told the P-I. "We would like to cleanse our premises of them." Native to South America, the herbivores are known to be aggressive to people and pets, and can carry diseases. Their populations have increasingly grown in the Northwest, especially in Oregon, where they thrive in milder weather. In Washington, they've been spotted in wetlands as far north as the Canadian border and east to the Tri-Cities. Anyone who spots these rodents are asked to contact these officials: Trevor Sheffels at Portland State University at sheffels@pdx.edu, or 503-725-9076; U.S. Department of Agriculture in Bremerton at 360-337-2778, or its state office at 360-753-9884. To join the Seattle effort to rid of them, contact Annie Stixrood at astixrood@comcast.net. (Photo: U.S. Geological Survey)
'Rats' as big as cats spreading in Seattle
Portage Bay and Laurelhurst residents are joining forces with local marina users and the UW to find ways of getting rid of the nutria - water rodents the size of housecats - that are chewing and burrowing through lakeshores, reports the P-I. "Nutria look like the biggest rat you'll ever see," Charles Easterberg of the UW's Department of Environmental and Occupational Health and Sciences told the P-I. "We would like to cleanse our premises of them." Native to South America, the herbivores are known to be aggressive to people and pets, and can carry diseases. Their populations have increasingly grown in the Northwest, especially in Oregon, where they thrive in milder weather. In Washington, they've been spotted in wetlands as far north as the Canadian border and east to the Tri-Cities. Anyone who spots these rodents are asked to contact these officials: Trevor Sheffels at Portland State University at sheffels@pdx.edu, or 503-725-9076; U.S. Department of Agriculture in Bremerton at 360-337-2778, or its state office at 360-753-9884. To join the Seattle effort to rid of them, contact Annie Stixrood at astixrood@comcast.net. (Photo: U.S. Geological Survey)
Leave a comment