A couple of Sundays ago I was walking along the bank of the Tiber when I saw what I first took to be an otter paddling along near some reeds in the Tiber. I’m told it was actually a strange little creature called a nutria. These creatures, also known as coypu, look like a vague cousin of the beaver; they’re a little smaller, have narrow tails and would look quite cute if it wasn’t for their alarmingly orange teeth.

Nutria originate in South America, and the ones living wild in Italy have escaped from farms where they were bred either for their fur or for their meat. The meat is apparently extremely good for you, being low in cholesterol and high in protein, but perhaps suffers commercially by coming from an animal best described as being “a bit like a large rat, with bright orange teeth.” Either way, nutria (or coypu - the two words seem to be interchangeable, but I prefer nutria if just because it’s so obscure) farms seem to be a bad investment, and their inmates are eventually released into the wild where they form their own little South American expat communities.

Since then I’ve been looking out for more of the odd little creatures whenever I walk along the bank of the Tiber, but I have yet to see another. If I had, there would have been a nice informative photograph to go with this post. As it is, you get nothing.