Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2001 00:39:17 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Marshall Iliff Subject: RFI: History of Nutria in MD Comments: cc: Georgearmistead@aol.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit MDOsprey, In doing some side reasearch I have recently browsed the mammal accounts in Paradiso 1969 (Paradiso, J.L. 1969. Mammals of Maryland. North American Fauna, No. 66, Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, Washington, D.C.). I was intrigued by the account for Nutria (Myocastor coypus), the large, introduced muskrat-like thing from South America that is running amok in Lower Eastern Shore tidal marshes such as Blackwater NWR and Deal Island WMA. As of 1969, we apparently knew very little of the species' status in the state. Furthermore, its apparent accidental introduction by a government agency, no doubt familiar with the species and its propensity to invade coastal saltmarshes, seems a bit ironic to me. Paradiso's 1969 account (p.118-119) reads: "Nutria apparently became established in the Dorchester County marshes of Maryland sometime in the early 1940's. There are no recoirds of their occurrence there earlier, and Herbert L. Dozier, formerly Director of the U.S. Fur Animal Field Station at the Blackwater National Wilidlife Refuge, does not mention their presence in the Maryland marshes in his extensive nutria correspondence in the files of the Fish and Wildlife Service dating back to the period 13 March 1939, to 3 June 1941. It is possible that Maryland's nutria population may have originated as escapees from the U.S. Fur Animal Field Station, although there is no certain proof of this. In the late 1930's and early 1940's Dozier was conducting experiments at the Blackwater Refuge of the feeding, care, and breeding of captive nutria. In one of his letters dated 18 November 1940, now in the files of the U.S. Fish and Wilidlife Service, he says: "We have recently completed two new large 100 sq. ft. inclosures in marsh and pond edge and have released a pair of nutria in each to study their reactions to various types of local habitat, etc." There is no record of what became of the enclosures or the animals, and Dozier never published, to my knowledge, the results of his study. Maryland kept no accurate records of its animal fur catch intul 1949. Prior to that, only rough erstimates were made each year as to the numbers of animals trapped in the State, and no mention was ever made of nutria. In 1949, when trappers were first required to report their catches, four nutria were among the animals taken. No further nutria were reported until 1956, when two were trapped in the Dorchester marshes. The following year the catch was 45 and in 1958 the number declined. Thirty-four were reported for 1959, none for 1960, and five in 1961. It appears that nutria in the Maryland marshes are only precariously established." Those familiar with our Lower Eastern Shore marshes will know the nutria, both by appearance and its bleating, sheep-like call that is often heard at Elliott by Black- Railers. How wrong was Paradiso (1969) in saying it was "only precariously established". I remember seeing in 1995 the results of a refuge control effort at Blackwater - the dyke area was littered with 100+ nutria carcasses. The same can be seen at areas on the Tudor Farm. Interestingly, Webster et al. 1985 (Webster, W.D., J.F. Parnell, and W.C. Biggs.1985. Mammals of the Carolinas, Virginia, and Maryland. The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC) map its range as including both the Eastern and Western Shores, as well as Garrett County. I have not seen them on the Western Shore, though I have heard that they occur, but I don't even know where in Garrett County might support nutria. Can anyone answer this? My questions are these: 1) Does anyone know an accurate account of how nutria were introduced here? 2) Does anyone have any idea when they became common? 3) Does anyone know the current range of nutria in Maryland? Where is it found on the Western Shore? How about in inland Maryland? 4) Does anyone know anything about their status in Garrett County? It would seem that D.N.R. and other agencies would have great interest in documenting the spread of an invasive species such as this within the state. I am surprised that so little was known even back in 1969, but perhaps noone saw it coming. Blindsided by nutria... Best, Marshall Iliff *********************** Marshall Iliff miliff@aol.com Annapolis, MD ************************ ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================