The giant orange tooth mouse invaded California

The California government is calling for the destruction of harmful beaver rats that can lay 16,000 juveniles in just three years.

The mice weigh up to 9kg and one meter long are proliferating in California state, US, International Business Times on February 15 reported. This rat has orange teeth, webbed feet and tail rats. They are beaver rats, or coypu rats, originating from South America. Due to being domesticated, they spread throughout the world and were discovered in both Canada and Europe.

Beaver mice are invasive animals that destroy crops.(Photo: Pixabay).

Beaver mice look like distant relatives of beavers, but they are herbivores. They can be very aggressive in some situations. The very pathogen they carry on them turns this animal into a threat. They can transmit rabies, Triple E, intestinal disease, jaundice or toxoplasmosis to humans. They are also hosts to many parasites such as lice, lice and ticks.

In the last year, 20 beaver mice were found in three different counties in the state of California, including a healthy female. Beaver mice are famous for their very fast fertility. Female mice can lay three litters a year, each litter can produce about 20 young animals. Their lifespan is up to 10 years. According to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, only a pair of beaver mice of reproductive age can produce 16,000 juveniles within three years.

This rat is voracious and can eat any crop. In their natural habitat, beaver rats often become targets of predators such as skinhead eagles, falcons or crocodiles, but these predators do not exist in California. The state government claimed that beaver rats were successfully eradicated in 1965 but they reappeared.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has set up a hotline to track beaver rats. According to CDFW, beaver rats can seriously destroy local resources, destroy land, crops, reduce the stability of river banks, embankments and roads, "We don't know how many children there are. or how they appear again, but we know it is necessary to remove them, " said Peter Tira, a CDFW spokesman.