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At the top of the list is the nutria, a large, water-loving rodent that resembles a beaver without the trademark flat tail. Nutria are native to the swamps of South America. They were brought to the U.S. by fur traders in the 1930s, and many were released into the wild after the market for nutria fur dried up. Since then, nutria have been a menace in marshlands in several regions of the country " particularly along the Gulf Coast, but also on the Atlantic coast and in the Pacific Northwest and parts of California.