Wildlife 1

A while ago, I had my first recent wildlife encounter. On one of the coldest days of the year, I looked outside and saw a brown furry lump on the edge of the bluff. On closer inspection, it turned out to be a real big rodent. I first thought it was a beaver but it had a straight round tail.

After some research, I discovered it was a [nutria](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutria). A South American rodent, it was imported to Oregon and is taking over, crowding out the native muskrats and beavers. Evidently, it doesn’t like cold weather and this one looked miserable in the cold.

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