Banana Boat Rat - Truth or Fiction?
by Jane Webb(31)The last couple of days a popular search on Google has been for a Banana Boat Rat. People have been scouring the Internet to find out information on this animal but are coming up with zero information. This story seems as viral as swine flu!
It is a real animal? Does anyone know anything about it? All I have been able to find leads me to believe this is a hoax. Supposedly, a woman called an Atlanta radio station about a dog she brought home from her vacation. Seems this gentle pup ate her cat. She took her "puppy" to the vet where she was told the animal is a Banana Boat Rat.
Is there such an animal? Yes! Have you seen one? Yes! Do you have one? Why isn't there any information about such an animal? I'm sure the radio station's ratings have skyrocketed and everybody loves these stories. I'm wondering where the woman went on vacation? Maybe she illegally brought it over the border? Part of the mystery was no one knew the real name of the Banana Boat Rat.
The mystery animal is a nutria or nutra rat or coypu native to South America and brought to the United States for its fur and its herbivorous diet. The idea was to introduce it to the US swamps and waterways to help control growth of brush and algae. The concept has backfired as the nutria rat is considered a pest contributing to the erosion of river and lake shores. The fur industry tanked adding to the animal's bad reputation as a useless animal.
Their appearance is similar to a large rat or a beaver with a rat-like tail. I have yet to hear of one biting a human, after all, they are herbivores.
They are considered 'good eatin' by many as their meat is low in cholesterol, but after seeing them, I don't think I'd consider eating one. The area I live in brought a pair into a local park to control algae. Now, many live peacefully amid turtles, ducks, fish and whatever else is in the water.
Article submitted Thursday, May 07, 2009 & read 415 times.
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