The coypu is a large rodent that looks similar to a beaver. It has webbed, hind feet, is about three feet long, including its tail, and weighs about twenty pounds.
These animals originally lived only in South America. However, in years past they were introduced into Europe and North America where they have been raised for their valuable fur, which is called nutria, their original name. For several reasons some of them were brought to the swamplands of Louisiana over a hundred years ago and set free, and they have become a serious problem there as the years have gone by.
One of the reasons they were brought to Louisiana was the demand for their beautiful fur. Also, it was hoped that they would destroy troublesome plants that were taking over the Louisiana swamps. Although coypu occasionally eat a snail or small fish, they eat mostly vegetation which they devour while swimming or wading in the shallow swamps. But the people who brought them to Louisiana failed to experiment with the coypu before bringing them to Louisiana, and the result was that they didn’t do what was expected of them.
The lively animals soon discovered that just a short distance from their new homes were rice and sugarcane crops, which they really liked. Farmers naturally complained loudly about the damage they did.
Actually, if they would just leave the rice and sugarcane alone, the wild, tangled vegetation in the swamps not only supplies ample food for them, but also helps hide them from alligators and eagles. Also, the young can be raised in burrows dug into the soft swamp banks where a mother may have eight or nine babies a year. They are born with a full coat of fur, with their eyes open and quite capable of promptly taking care of themselves.
The biggest problem with these water-loving animals is trying to control their ever-increasing numbers. An estimate is that there are more than twenty million. When fur sales used to be good, that kept their numbers in fairly good control. But as people are now buying fewer fur coats, there is a serious question whether the increasing number of these animals will become a problem too great to handle.
This reminds us that often the plans of men and women and boys and girls don’t work out, just as the coypu plans didn’t work out. This is usually because we think our ideas are good and fail to pray to the Lord for His guidance. The very middle verse of the Bible (Psalm 118:88It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. (Psalm 118:8)) says, “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.”
Have you put your trust in the Lord and do you turn to Him for guidance?
ML-02/11/2007