I went to local crafter Shaun Deller’s website to find out about the perfect bike hats he makes. Instead, I got a schooling in post-apocalyptic survival.
We here at the Mercury take the apocalypse very seriously and Deller has some good tips. He recommends:
1. Possum wool clothes. Apparently these are already for sale.
2. Killing nutria for food. It’s worth watching this amazing video of Deller and friends biking along the Sprinwater corridor, setting nutria traps, and then strapping the dead nutria to his bike rack for easy transportation home.
Here’s how Deller describes the experience of eating nutria on his blog:
We then returned with our catch and skinned them, prepared the hides for tanning and butchered the carcass and cooked up a bit of the meat. Most folks seemed pleasantly surprised at the “chicken- like” taste of the meat… These mammals are plentiful in Portland and sometimes even overpopulated, and I think could offer a healthy source of meat for humans. Think of it as free-range sources of meat, fat, and fur. : )
In case you’re feeling sorry for the rodents, read this press release from the U.S. Geological Survey imploring folks to kill nutria because they’re “eating out” the Gulf Coast. Their release honestly begins: “‘Eating-out’ might be a term you associate with a pleasant experience…”
I would strongly advise that anyone interested in nutria watch the documentary “American Nutria”, which oddly enough is narrated by Calvin Johnson and has a soundtrack by Deathcab for Cutie.
Nutria = disgustingsville to the max. This is something that they’d force me to eat in my Fear Factor hell.
They feel the same way about you.
My only concern about this is those trap locations–there must be dogs and cats and other “non-target” animals running around back there as well–heck, in the video you can hear someone’s dog barking at these guys. There’s really no way they can be certain that their traps are ONLY going to kill nutria, right?
I’m with Dave J. on this one… what’s to stop an outdoor cat, pet or feral, from getting caught in one of these “instant-kill” traps?
Um, shouldn’t they wait until the actual apocalyse before eating nutria? I mean, what’s the point of living a miserable post-apocalyptic life BEFORE it happens?
If you really think the apocalypse is coming, you should be using your last dollar to snort blow off of an escort’s inner thigh.
@Dave J: Agreed. I think you can shoot the things instead. There are rules about discharging a firearm close to residences, but I suspect that if you wanted to hunt them with a bow and arrow in the city, nobody could complain. Given that they aren’t afraid of humans, you could probably get pretty close and they are about the same size as a fat girls leg, so how could you go wrong? (I know, they might move. How about if you get two other people to hold them down while you hit them?)
These traps were set on runs coming out of blackberry hedges where nutria are denning and where only nutria have been active. This is based on the landowner’s experience and my personal tracking knowledge. The property owner kept their cats indoors during the evening while traps were set and the dog next door is behind a fence. We did not catch any “non-target” animals. Despite peoples affection for feral cats, they are incredibly destructive to native songbird populations, perhaps even more destructive than the nutria is to wetland habitat. While I do not trap feral cats, I would not be opposed to anyone who does or the possibility of an accidental catch. From the perspective of one who has never trapped, it may seem that these traps are haphazardly placed but the reality is that they are set in key locations often in water or coming out of water where cats do not venture.
… There’s a rat in the kitchen what am I gonna go?
I’m gonna fix that rat thats what I’m gonna do
BTW for the best Nutria Hunting footage on the web check out Dave Attell’s Insomiac episode in New Orleans
New Orleans’ Nutria
http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.…
I remember when Vera Katz had the vision to introduce the nutria to the Rhodie Garden in Eastmoreland. What a joke that women was.
People who are disgusted by the idea of eating nutria should avoid free range chicken at all costs. There is no creature with nastier eating habits than the chicken. I have never eaten nutria but I have eaten countless numbers of their cousins the groundhog. If BBQ nutria is even half as good as groundhog they are meat from heaven. Wash them down with a few slugs of Jack Daniel’s.
Tennessee Hillbilly