Nutria have dark, webby feet though, and a lighter coat.
The dead critter is all wet, so is hard to tell, but it doesn't look quite like a nutria to me.
I've been told NYC has wharf rats that reach the size of possums, because of the abundance of food and lack of natural predators.

Chances are, hmm, it probably is a nutria-just a bad picture of one.

This is a cute video-at least I thought:Link (new window)

a 30-INCH LONG monster

I see they interviewed your mom.

xynix: ambassador_ahab: As someone who used to live in Louisiana, I'm inclined to think it is indeed a nutria, though the photo isn't very clear.

Usually when people think they've found a giant rat, it's a nutria.

Yeah .. thats a Nutria or a kapi.. In New Orleans we call it dinner. I've eaten quite a few of these guys. Awesome in a long marinade with lemons and capers. In their prime age (3-4yrs) they are SO tender and oh so yummy. The kapi can get up to 140lbs.. massive rodents. The nutria is a smaller version (about 20-30lbs max) and all over the swamps of Louisiana. I grew up eating them.

The live version:


Didn't they have some kind of a bounty hunt on these things a while back? As I remember, they're a rogue species. THEY'RE NOT EVEN SUPPOSED TO BE HERE!

I loved Templeton, JRoo!

This text is now purple: Stay Cool Babylon: I once saw a nutria on Dauphine St. in the French Quarter - pretty much the last place you expect to find a nutria poking around.

I think Antarctica would be last place I'd expect to find a nutria.

Actually, it's not that unlikely. The Nutria Patagonica (southern river otter) lives, as its name indicates, in the Patagonia (south of Argentina and Chile), is actually a great swimmer, and is used to the cold waters. It even lives in Tierra del Fuego, the closest piece of land to Antarctica. It would be weirder to find one in Oceania, where there is definitely no nutrias at all (and if there were, that would be a weird species of poisonous nutria).

jingks: I agree subby, this thing should definitely be killed.



I think I'm gonna call that look (facial hair included) the 'nutria' from now on.

Brandon used to bulls-eye those in his T-16 back home.

HMS_Blinkin: I guess Oblivion is becoming real life.....

/oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please

Morrowind > Oblivion

Oblivion's still good, though.

Quick Q, how do they taste?

Looks like a rat someone is holding towards the camera while they stand back so it looks bigger.

jingks: I agree subby, this thing should definitely be killed.

came for this joke, leaving satisfied.

He's got his nasty paws on that broom and is going to hit Brandon right on his sweatpanty nubbin.

Capt. Sparkles: Morrowind > Oblivion

seconded.

/still waiting for my wife to let me play Fallout 3 on the one computer equipped to run it-hers.

Antimatter: BarefootInTheFark: Came for the capybara, leaving disappointed. But still terrified.

Those are harmless. I'd get one as a pet, but i'm not sure I could handle a 140 lbs rodent. Feeding it would cost a fortune.

those are the foulest smelling animals at the zoo - you'd pay a fortune in water and soap to keep it bathed, plus I doubt that they house train.

The things you learn on Fark!

Kar98: This?



Seen many that size in New Orleans.

Excuse me while I go and hang a rat.

dumpstertize: Nutria have dark, webby feet though, and a lighter coat.
The dead critter is all wet, so is hard to tell, but it doesn't look quite like a nutria to me.
I've been told NYC has wharf rats that reach the size of possums, because of the abundance of food and lack of natural predators.

Chances are, hmm, it probably is a nutria-just a bad picture of one.

This is a cute video-at least I thought:Link (new window)

Thank you for that. Really, really cute. Too bad they lost her in Katrina.

sirgrim: Looks like a rat someone is holding towards the camera while they stand back so it looks bigger.

Uhhh, hello, this article is in THE SUN, aka the most reliable source of FACTS in the United Kingdom.

There's no way a trashy tabloid and a rat haired idiot that shoots rodents with an air rifle on the outskirts of Bradford would exaggerate for the purposes of newsertainment.

You moron.

ambassador_ahab: As someone who used to live in Louisiana, I'm inclined to think it is indeed a nutria, though the photo isn't very clear.

Usually when people think they've found a giant rat, it's a nutria.

not sure what photo you're looking at but the one from the article really looks like a GIANT rat... definitely not a nutria. Either that or maybe some hybrid of regular rat/nutria etc..

If I see a rat like that in my house I'll probably cry like a lil girl. Then I'll burn my house down from the outside.

FTA (caption under photo): Rat in me kitchen ... mother Julie Briggs

Billy Ray Cyrus didn't age very well.

Antimatter: BarefootInTheFark: Came for the capybara, leaving disappointed. But still terrified.

Those are harmless. I'd get one as a pet, but i'm not sure I could handle a 140 lbs rodent. Feeding it would cost a fortune.

But I have 3 arms.


/sorry I had to throw that out there

skyshooter: It's the obvious lack of reference in the frame as to the size of the rat, I believe it is no more than 10" nose to tail, the guy is holding it towards the camera on a long stick. Of course it's going to look huge when shot that way.

Bears, etc.

Stupid personal anecdote time:

It's back around 1999, I'm getting buzzed with friends at a bar on Union Square in NYC. We leave around 1:00 AM to head back to Brooklyn where we all live. I'm walking across the Square to the N/R subway station and I look over at the little dog park they have - you know, the kind where people can let their dogs off-leash to run around and mingle with other pooches.

Anyway, I look over and I see this dog, maybe around large terrier size, 25-30 lbs. It's running around and sniffing at stuff, but looks kinda funky. I take a few steps closer, and realize the dog has this a little whip of a tail.

Yeah, it wasn't a dog, it was a rat.

Tatsuma: Why use bullets to kill it? You just waste them, and they are so rare to find most of the time.

Simply use Moira's stick

I got something better

Fake fake fake. They saw this flunky photo with deceptive perspective, and made up a great story.

That rat is about 8 inches long. Men are always overestimating the length of things

I forgot: Is size 12 considered unusual?

is this another one of those threads where I say "I thought they were metric over there." just to be shot down with we use both? Or does the Sun translate for us?

Clicks link...


JEBUS SHIAT WTF!!!!

Forced perspective picture is forced.

/Hot like the Town Tart

Ravenscliffe estate in Bradford?
Mmm, delightful place.
There's more than just rats there.

"At night you can hear them chasing each other in the loft..."

Once, they crashed through the ceiling and interrupted a dinner party with a face melting guitar solo.

Milton Berle was all "WTF!"

"Illusions of Perspective" trifecta in play.

I'm inclined to think that this is an article from "The Sun", which is about as scientific and accurate as "The Daily Mail".

Approves.

They're going to need some bigger cats. Maybe they should import some lions from Africa.

Then, when the rats are gone and they have a lion problem, they can import some....

... ummm ...

/Never mind, Simpson's did it.

Apparently England had an infestation of nutria (they call them coypu) and decided to cull them in 1964...guess they didn't get them all...

kindpastor: "Illusions of Perspective" trifecta in play.


(source)

James Herbert graphically predicted this years ago, but no one listened, and now it's TOO LATE!!

(And no, he's not the guy who wrote Dune.)