Facts about Coypu

1. 08

   Female coypu can become pregnant again within hours of giving birth, allowing them to produce up to three litters annually in favorable conditions.

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2. 07

   Webbed hind feet with five toes allow coypu to reach swimming speeds of up to 3 kilometers per hour while foraging for aquatic vegetation at night.

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3. 06

   In 1962, the entire coypu population in the United Kingdom was estimated at over 200,000 individuals before a coordinated eradication program reduced them to extinction by 1989.

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4. 05

   Destructive burrowing by coypu can undermine levees and embankments so severely that they caused an estimated $20 million in damage to Louisiana's coastal infrastructure between 1999 and 2010.

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5. 04

   Litters of six to eight coypu pups are born fully furred and mobile within hours, allowing them to follow their mother to water sources immediately after birth.

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6. 03

   Approximately 50 million coypu were farmed for fur in the Soviet Union during the 1950s before populations escaped into the wild.

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7. 02

   Coypu teeth never stop growing throughout their lifetime, requiring constant gnawing on vegetation and wood to prevent overgrowth that would make eating impossible.

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8. 01

   Weighing up to 10 kilograms, coypu are large semi-aquatic rodents native to South America that have become invasive across Europe, Asia, and North America since the 1930s.

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