From these escapes and releases, the nutria became established not 

 only in the Lake Washington region but in areas drained by the Snohomish 

 and Skykoraish Rivers and their tributaries. It has traveled up the 

 Cascade range to the headwaters of the Snoqualmie River about 60 miles 

 from the town of Renton. Larrison (19U3) reports colonies of nutrias 

 near Garrison Lake, Nestucca River, and Portland, Oregon; also near the 

 Sammamish River in the vicinity of Seattle and the La Conner and Fine 

 Lakes areas in Washington. The earliest trapping record for nutria in 

 Oregon appears to be 1938, and in Washington 19Ul« 



In 1938, E. A, Mcllhenny established a nutria farm on Avery Island, 

 Iberia Parish, Louisiana, The animals were kept in an area fenced by 

 driving boards side by side into the marsh. About 1939, some of the 

 animals escaped into the marsh areas surrounding the Island. Many more 

 escaped into the marshland during a hurricane in 19li0. Lowery (19h3> 

 po 2U8) states Mcllhenny reported that trappers took nutrias in Iberia 

 Parish and that he heard of others being captured at Morgan City, 

 Marsh Islands, Chenier au Tigre, Pecan Island, Lake Arthur, and in the 

 marsh along the Sabine River near Toomy. Atwood (unpublished) reports 

 that during September 19U0 he found the first nutria in the Lake Arthur 

 area, 65 miles by water from Avery Island. In Louisiana, where the 

 waterways are a network of rivers, lakes, bayous, and marshes, traversed 

 in part by an inter coastal canal, the nutria had no difficulty in ex- 

 tending its range. 



Nutrias were first trapped on the Sabine National Wildlife Refuge 

 during the season 19U1-U2 and on Laccasine in the winter of 19U3; both 

 Federal refuges are located in Cameron Parish. 



In 1939, nutrias were discovered on the Bitter Lakes National Wild- 

 life Refuge, New Mexico. Prior to the acquisition of this land by the 

 Federal Government, a nutria farm was established in the region near 

 the Pecos River. Later a flood swept the nutrias down the river and 

 those that survived established colonies on the Refuge. The existing 

 habitat is patchy and limited, and the food and cover are not the types 

 particularly attractive to nutrias. 



By the close of the 19^5-^6 trapping season, according to Earl Atwood 

 (unpublished ms.); nutrias had extended their range westward as far as 

 White Ranch, 15 miles west of Port Arthur, Texas, and eastward as far as 

 the west bank of the Mississippi River. By 19^7 this exotic had traveled 

 east and south as far as the delta at the mouth of the Mississippi; in 

 January 19^7 > colonies of nutrias were found on the Delta National Wildlife 

 Refuge. Westward, they had migrated to the Texas border and across the 

 State line into the marsh areas along the Gulf of Mexico. 



Petrides and Leedy (19^8) report that the first nutria taken in Ohio 

 was killed in a barn at Whitehouse in Lucas County. It was eating corn 

 with the pigs. Dr. William H. Burt, of the University of Michigan, 

 received several sight records of nutrias in Michigan. Harlan (19^+3) 

 states that two young muskrat trappers in Iowa captured a strange animal 

 later identified as a nutria. Presumably this animal escaped from a fur 

 farm. 



