SOUTH AMERICA 385 



become the demand for this fur that in recent decades the 

 animals have in places become greatly depleted. 



Hudson, writing in 1892, said that it was much more abun- 

 dant in the La Plata region 50 years previously than at that 

 time. Its skin was largely exported to Europe. "About that 

 time the Dictator Rosas issued a decree prohibiting the hunting 

 of the coypu. The result was that the animals increased and 

 multiplied exceedingly, and abandoning their aquatic habits, 

 they became terrestrial and migratory, and swarmed every- 

 where in search of food. Suddenly a mysterious malady fell 

 on them, from which they quickly perished, and became 

 almost extinct." This account of a sudden and decimating 

 epizootic among these rodents recalls the cyclic fluctuations 

 known among such northern rodents as meadow mice and 

 snowshoe hares. No other evidence is known to me of such an 

 epizootic elsewhere among the coypus. 



In his account of the mammals of Uruguay, Sanborn (1929) 

 writes: "Coypus have been so hunted for their fur that they 

 are now quite scarce in settled districts. I heard of many at 

 the Laguna Negra in Rocha but did not have a chance to 

 visit there. At most places tBe people said there were a few 

 left where many had been." The Argentine Government, in 

 1931, issued a bulletin on the nutria, remarking on the great 

 persecution to which it had been subjected on account of the 

 value of its fur and calling attention to the fact that in conse- 

 quence it had now disappeared from many parts of Argentina, 

 while recent droughts had augmented these losses. The export 

 of the fur is now under governmental control, and already 

 there are farms for breeding it. The report adds that the 

 hunters are now their worst enemy. They hunt not only for 

 the fur but also for the meat, which is palatable and is said 

 even to have been served by a hotel in Goya. 



Numerous breeding farms have of recent years been estab- 

 lished in Uruguay and have given excellent results. Devin- 

 cenzi (1935) states, however, that "pitiless persecution by the 

 professional hunters, without regard to season, sex, or size 

 has so decimated the numbers in many sections of Uruguay, 

 that where once it was abundant, it is now rare." Frank G. 

 Ashbrook, summing up the situation, writes to Dr. Harper 

 (1935): "The nutria is perhaps not in as great danger of ex- 

 termination as the chinchilla, but strict conservation laws 



