Saw this in a February 1958 magazine.

Very interesting.

That plan backfired.

Nutria trappers, can these critters send the cold? And how COLD?

The population takes a hit when we get a very cold winter in western Oregon. They don't like extended sub-zero temps but have survived artic blasts where we dropped down to 10-13 below zero for a few days. The following year you will find many nutes with stubbed tails where their tail froze and eventually rotted off.

On very cold days it is common to see them grazing in green ryegrass fields which are common here all winter long.

So the answer is they can take the moderate climes of western Washington and Oregon on the 45th parallel and above, but would not last in the upper midwest for the weather you get there.

For the most part nutria around here are all mutts now for color but when I first started trapping a lot of them in the 70's we still got original color phases that had been sold as breeders. These included blacks (a very beautiful shiny coal black), blondes, silvers and reds. The blondes had blondish guard hairs.

A sheared nutria has beautiful underfur on the belly and the leather is much lighter than beaver making it a light weight garment easier for women to wear.

https://www.lacoast.gov/reports/gpfs/LA-03b.pdf

Louisiana nutria bounty program