We were walking along the Arno River on our way to the Ufizzi Museum when lo and behold we saw two large creatures swimming in the river and it looked like to me to be large rodents probably fresh water otters,does anyone have any answers
Posted by
The Hague, NL (AMS)
2207 posts
Probably there were Myocastor coypus or nutria, a large, herbivorous, semiaquatic rodent brought from South America. They are all over the banks of the Tiber. Not exactly a rat but they say they are excellent to eat....
Ciao,
Ron
Posted by
US Pacific Northwest
10344 posts
My guess was going to be nutria.
Posted by
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
8293 posts
"Not exactly a rat but they say they are excellent to eat." Oh, yum.
Posted by
Morrison, CO, USA
893 posts
Brian, I am going with nutria. They also live and are trapped in Louisiana for meat and skins. Doesn't sound appetizing, I always think that the first person to ever eat one must have been really hungry!
(Like the first person to ever eat an oyster!)
Posted by
bergamo
401 posts
Definitely nutria. They are all over Italy where they thrive as they have no predators, there are tons in the Tevere as well.
Posted by
OP
Monterey, Ca., U.S.A.
18 posts
I would like to thank all of you for your replies to my question about wild life in the Arno River,I have seen Nutria in the swamps of New Orleans but just could not believe that they were here in Italy,they were supposedly brought to Louisiana from South America as a cheap food source for laborers and were called swamp rabbit or something like that but never caught on because basically there just a big rat.