| Show south american streams yield odd beaver rats with the duckbilled duck billed platypus the kangaroo the koala and some other animals of strange appearance and habits australia is popularly supposed to have a monopoly on odd animal life however says nature magazine another wildlife contradiction is found in the waterways of f waterway southern brazil and chile an and in paraguay and argentina this is the beaver rat which is neither beaver nor rat an important import art for fur bearer this animal appears in the fur stores sores as nutria the sale ariy when pressed may say that the fur is from some kind of south american rat an admission lacking in sales appeal in fact however this animal is not nutria because that is spanish for otter which the animal is not nor is it a rat because it is a distant cousin of the porcupine with its tail under water the animal might be a stand in for a beaver but its tail is long round aart raiv like a rat and its hind feet are webbed twenty inches to two teet feet long weighing around 10 pounds this fel cl low would be considerable rat about the only way to settle the matter seems to be to fall back on the scientific name of Myo castor and to use ue for short the natives of paraguay call the animal guiya which help matters any prolific yield between and skins a year to the fur trade used as is the fur makes a good imitation of beaver dyed it can be made into seal A nineteenth century argentine dictator prohibited hunting the they increased to such numbers that they left the water and swarmed over the land seeking food suddenly a mysterious malady overtook them and they became almost extinct |
