Dear Val,
Ragondin are certainly not to be encouraged. They did a lot of damage in the Norfolk Broads until the sixties when a program using contraceptives (oral!) eradicated them. They are not native but were originally imported for the fur trade (c.f. mink) . They can be vicious and one of my Dalmatians was severely attacked when a large adult one was disturbed in a ditch near Varen. The wounds were very deep and my vet tells me that the ragondin carrries streptococcus on those nasty yellow incisors. They are also carriers of leptospirosis ( Weil’s disease in humans).The virus passes in their urine and can infect any dog which eats grass or licks his coat after a run by the river. The disease can be fatal in both dogs & humans. I am lucky as our local ragondin family was systematically trapped and/or shot by my neighbour farmer on the other side of the Cerou, but not before they had ravaged his maize crop and made a mess of the river bank on my side.
I am told it appears on some menus in the Dordogne as Marsh Hare.
Best wishes,
Sally.
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