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Coypu, nutria - MYOCASTOR COYPUS
Class: Animals with Milk Glands (Mammalia)
The Name "Coypu": "Coypu" is from the native South American Araconian word "koypu," for the animal. "Nutria" is the Spanish nasalized pronunciation of the word "lutra," which means "otter." It is not closely related to the otter, however.
Location: Originally from southern South America, introduced into Europe and the United States (for farming and rearing).
Habitat: Terrestrial. Ponds, rivers, lakes, and marshy or swampy areas.
Description: The body is covered with a soft, dense, slate-colored coat with long bristles. The tail is covered with scales and is round. The eyes and ears are small, and the snout has long whiskers. The hind feet are partly webbed and hairless. The incisors are large, conspicuous, and yellow. The coypu grows over two feet long, with another eighteen inches for the tail. It can weigh twenty pounds.
Behavior: The coypu swims skillfully and is mainly active at dusk, although also during the day. It spends the night in its deep burrow, which is dug on dry land, and it lives in quite large groups. It eats aquatic plants, earthworms, and bivalve mollusks. It spends a great deal of time grooming its coat, first dampening it with a liquid secreted by glands situated near its mouth, and then cleaning and combing industriously with its claws.
Reproduction: It reproduces two or three times a year. Gestation lasts for four months and each lifter has one to nine young in it.
Note: This animal is raised for its highly prized fur, from which the coarser bristles are removed leaving only the fine underfur.
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