[Sca-cooks] Exotic but Tasty?

[Laura C. Minnick]

At 01:07 PM 11/6/2004, you wrote:
> >
> > We have trouble with invasive plants here, but I can't think of any beasts
> > that are a problem, unless you count that rat-like water-dwelling mammal
> > near Corvallis... (Am I gonna catch it for that one! ;-)
> >
>Ah yes the Nutria Rat.

*koff* Er, no. Though we do have problems in Lane county with nutria. I was 
thinking of a certain bucktoothed critter with a flat tail... that lives at 
OSU...

>  I suspect that is the critter you are referencing.
>This beast is something of a scourge/mix blessing in Louisiana and has
>indeed, by those who should have know better, been introduced on to the
>eastern seaboard with predictable destructive effect on the marsh/estuaries
>of the region.

Some brilliant person brought them out here thinking to raise them for fur 
(they do have pretty fur) and fer eatin'. But people won't eat them (IIRC 
they're weird tasting from the scummy water they live in). And now you can 
hardly walk through Westmoreland Family Housing (UO student families), 
which is right on the creek, without stepping in something icky. And they 
don't get along with the raccoons either...

Oh those were the days...

'Lainie
___________________________________________________________________________
The penalty good men pay for not being interested in politics is to be 
governed by men worse than themselves. -- Plato