CA Department of Fish and Wildlife 
 
 Since 2017, more than 20 nutria have been spotted in Stanislaus, Merced and Fresno counties. They didn’t find anything, but with these latest sightings – it’s causing concern. CA Department of Fish and Wildlife 
 
 Nutria is often mistaken for a beaver or muskrat, but it's identified by its white whiskers, rounded tail and webbed feet with just one toe free. The rodent eats so much vegetation that it threatens wetlands and there could also be the loss of agriculture crops and levees. These rodents have a lot of offspring’s every year,” he said. “We’re all right now getting together trying to come up with a plan and just determine the extent of the problem and infestation, and we’re in the process of putting out traps and cameras to get a sense of where they are and how many there are,” said Peter Tira, California Department of Fish and Wildlife. "We’re really asking for the public's help to report sightings so we can get a handle on the extent of the problem."
– California is under attack from a giant, big-eating, fast-breeding, road-destroying rodent believed to have been eradicated from the state 40 years ago, KCRA reports. According to the Sacramento Bee, state biologists have found nearly two-dozen nutria in Stanislaus, Merced, and Fresno counties since March. The rodents were introduced to California in 1899 for their fur, but officials thought they got rid of the last of them in 1978. It's unclear where this new population of nutria came from—it's possible one colony escaped eradication only to emerge recently—but officials say their numbers will explode if something isn't done. A single female nutria can give birth to up to 200 offspring a year, and they have no natural predators. Nutria are 2.5-feet-long, weigh around 20 pounds, and can eat up to 25% of their body weight a day. "They burrow in dikes, and levees, and road beds, so they weaken infrastructure, (which is) problematic for flood control systems,” California Fish and Wildlife spokesperson Peter Tira tells KCRA. Wetlands and levees in the areas where the nutria have been found are needed for flood control and providing water to cities and farms in Southern California. "The issue would be the infrastructure because if we get flooding or if we can’t pump water off and can’t maintain those levees then, of course, it’s going to be difficult to farm in those areas,” Tim Pelican, agriculture commissioner of San Joaquin County, tells CBS Sacramento. Officials are setting traps for the rodents and asking residents to report sightings.