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I was able to portray Besalú, in the Garrotxa region, at the coipú in the Fluvià river, as you can see in these video images that I share in Las Fotos de los Lectores de La Vanguardia.
It is an invasive animal, increasingly abundant in the regions of Girona. This rodent otter, similar to a beaver, is native to southern South America.
It lives in various types of wetlands, so it is not strange that it feels at home, for example, in the Aiguamolls of the Empordà. But, it has also adapted to living in the Fluvià River, as we see in the images.
He entered Catalonia from France a little over a decade ago. It was first established in the basins of the Muga and Fluvià rivers, in Girona, but it has already been sighted in the Ter and is expanding southwards.
The Generalitat sets up traps to capture them and sacrifice them, but the coipu resists. And it is a nightmare, for example, for the rice fields of Pals. Its growth endangers local fauna and flora.
An attempt to settle in Catalonia was already detected in the 1970s, when several specimens escaped from coypu breeding farms, but did not survive because they did not adapt to the low temperatures. But, now, climate change, yes.
In the places where it is most common, it is captured to use its meat as food, but especially its skin, used in fur processing. The coipu is a large rodent, weighing between 4 and 10 kg. It reaches 40 to 60 cm in body length, with a tail of 30 to 45 cm. It can be reproduced throughout the year.
