Broken Antler Fen swamp beaver

while plagues brewed elsewhere in the teekon wilds, a different sort of plague had descended upon broken antler fen. nutria, they were called, and they had been plaguing north america in their own unique way since the 19th century. sometimes described as a "cross between a beaver and a rat," these hungry little pseudo-otters were neither as environmentally productive or as cute as any of the animals it was often compared to. in this part of the world, they were known mainly for one thing:

destruction.

see, most nutria had two favorite things in the whole world: eating and... well. a single nutria can birth up to sixty little babyrats in a year across multiple litters. the average nutria dreamed of a massive den and a lifetime pass to an all-you-can-eat underwater salad bar. naturally, they loved wetlands. it was the best of both worlds.

this is where things get rather unfortunate for broken antler fen.

of course, an infestation didn't happen overnight — but when it came to nutria, it happened very quickly. and it started with a bang... quite literally.

unfortunate passersby would hear the scene before they saw it: a pair of brazen wild-furred nutria, copulating loudly and rather boldly near to the resident wolf pack's rendezvous. they were not the only nutria in the fen, but they were certainly the loudest, and kept up their tussling for at least half an hour amid coarse, high-pitched shrieks.

"the nutria (myocastor coypus), a large, semi-aquatic rodent native to south america, was originally brought to the united states in 1889 for its fur. when the nutria fur market collapsed in the 1940s, thousands of nutria escaped or were released into the wild by ranchers who could no longer afford to feed and house them. while nutria devour weeds and overabundant vegetation, they also destroy native aquatic vegetation, crops, and wetland areas. recognized in the united states as an invasive wildlife species, nutria have been found in at least 20 states and most recently in california. the nutria’s relatively high reproductive rate, combined with a lack of population controls, helped the species to spread."

@Eljay @Teya just stirring up some chaos, feel free to message me to get this removed if you dislike it in any way! also, a note to the cms, i figured a well-established invasive species in north america would be allowed but i'll absolutely remove it if it isn't <3

written by the listener