In 1981, Britain wanted to eradicate the invasive coypus which escaped from fur farms and grew to roughly 200,000 in population and damaged crops and wetlands; after years of trapping Britain made the

Synopsis Britain once had roughly 200,000 coypus after the rodents escaped from fur farms and spread across East Anglia, damaging crops and wetlands. In 1981, the country launched a scientific eradication campaign using intensive trapping, research and population tracking. Six years later, the invasive rodents had almost disappeared from Britain. Britain once had an estimated 200,000 coypus living across its wetlands and waterways. The large rodents had not always been part of the country’s wildlife. People brought them to Britain for fur farming, but some escaped and established themselves in the wild. By the 1950s, the animals had become a…