When my co-worker Jerry Cormier saw a new book on my desk titled “Swamp Rat: The Story of Dixie’s Nutria Invasion,” he had a story to tell. He said when he was growing up, his father would pay him for every nutria he killed because the animals would cut holes in the rice field levees.

The “Swamp Rat” book, by Theodore G. Manno, was sent to the newspaper to be reviewed. Looking through it, I learned that rice farmers were not alone in having their land destroyed by nutria.

In the book, the author refers to the U.S. nutria invasion as “one of the greatest environmental disasters in history.”

As one might expect, the book is filled with nutria facts. Among them:

lNutria are not rats. They are large plant-eating semiaquatic rodents.

lThey have orange teeth.

lThey reproduce quickly. 

lThey have a voracious appetite for plant life.

lA female nutria is able to breed again two days after giving birth.

Nutria aren’t good for wetlands because they like to burrow and eat the roots of plants. Roots damaged by nutria feeding can no longer hold soil in place. Hence, invasive nutria are a major reason that Gulf Coast wetlands are disappearing, Manno writes in the book.

Nutria arrived in this country in the first place because of a large consumer demand for products made with animal fur. Beaver fur was such a favorite that the American fur trade collapsed in the 1830s because of over-harvesting of beavers, Manno writes.

Soon after, nutria from South America were imported as a cheap, plentiful fur-producing alternative. Fast-forward to the 1930s, when nutria were introduced to Louisiana wetlands when they either escaped or were released from captive breeding facilities, the book reads.

Nutria in Louisiana multiplied quickly. Nutria pelts became big business. But when products made from animal fur fell out of fashion, the state’s nutria population went unharvested and multiplied exponentially.

One 1980s estimate said that nutria were contributing to wetland loss equivalent to the size of one football field every day.

Through interviews with biologists, historians, fashion designers and even chefs, Manno tells the poignant tale of how the nutria problem was born, how it grew and what steps have been taken to remedy it. He tells what has worked, what hasn’t, and what is being done now.

Manno, of Tucson, Ariz., is also the author of “The Utah Prairie Dog: Life among the Red Rocks” and “Mating Behavior of Columbian Ground Squirrels.”

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“Swamp Rat: The Story of Dixie’s Nutria Invasion,” by Theodore G. Manno, is published by University Press of Mississippi. The 252-page hardcover book contains 31 black and white photos. Cost is $28. Online: www.upress.state.ms.us.