The nutria, a kind of large rat native to South America, has been found to have expanded its habitat to almost all areas of Yamaguchi Prefecture. Out of 19 cities and towns in the prefecture, the animal has been found in 18 municipalities since it was first identified in the city of Yamaguchi in 2009.
Due to a string of agricultural damage, the number of nutrias captured for extermination jumped from 11 in the fiscal year starting April 2013 to 924 in fiscal 2020.
“Yamaguchi Prefecture has become the westernmost habitat of this species in Japan. We will take urgent measures to prevent a further increase,” an official at the nature conservation division of the prefectural government said.