Nutria: Where It Lives, Map & Facts

Where the nutria lives – recorded in 12 countries, with quick facts from Wikidata and an introduction from Wikipedia.

Scientific name	Myocastor coypus
Group	Mice, rats & other rodents
Status	Least concern (Wikidata, IUCN category label)
Found in	12 countries
Continents	Asia, Europe, North America, South America
Mass	225 g (birth weight); 6.7 kg (male organism, adult weight); 6.36 kg (female organism, adult weight)
Class	Mammal
Order	Rodentia
Family	Echimyidae

Where does the nutria live?

Open-licence (CC0 / CC BY) wild records published on GBIF place the nutria in 12 countries and territories across Asia, Europe, North America and South America. Wikidata gives its range as: Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Uruguay. In Belgium, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, Netherlands it is listed as introduced (GRIIS checklists via GBIF).

France
Germany (introduced)
Netherlands (introduced)
Belgium (introduced)
United States
Switzerland (introduced)
United Kingdom (introduced)
Italy (introduced)
Argentina
Japan (introduced)
Czech Republic (introduced)
Spain (introduced)

Countries with at least a handful of records (a minimum share of the species’ records, to leave out vagrants and escapes). Records with coordinates only; captive and fossil records excluded.

How big is a nutria?

Wikidata records the following for the nutria: mass 225 g (birth weight); 6.7 kg (male organism, adult weight); 6.36 kg (female organism, adult weight).

Is the nutria endangered?

The nutria’s conservation status recorded in Wikidata is “Least concern” (an IUCN Red List category label). Source: Wikidata.

What kind of animal is the nutria?

The nutria (Myocastor coypus) is a mammal in the order Rodentia and the family Echimyidae, genus Myocastor. (Taxonomy from Wikidata.)

About the nutria

The nutria () or coypu () (Myocastor coypus) is an herbivorous, semiaquatic rodent native to South America.

Classified for a long time as the only member of the family Myocastoridae, Myocastor has since been included within Echimyidae, the family of the spiny rats.

The nutria lives in burrows alongside stretches of water and feeds mainly on aquatic and riparian vegetation. In its native range it forms part of South American wetland food webs and can contribute to the dispersal of aquatic plants and spores.

Text in “About” is quoted from the Wikipedia article Nutria (revision 1379195878), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: lead section excerpted verbatim, formatting removed. Quick facts, taxonomy and status: Wikidata Q187704 (CC0). Countries and pin: GBIF.org occurrence records (CC0 / CC BY 4.0).