Janis robertson, age 12, of Visalia, calif., for her question;

That is a coypu?     

He is a shaggy animal, and you would never mistake him for the glossy mink or the silken sable.  But like these well dressed creatures, the coypu is rated as a valuable Four bearing animal.  Every year, thousands of coypu pelts are made into coats and Collars, hats and all kinds of fur trimmings.

The native home of the coypu is way down south in South America.  There for Generations he enjoyed life among the marshy waterways.  He is a member of the rat Family who enjoys life in the water and along swampy mud flats.  The coypu is not a handsome animal, and you would never guess that his shag looking coat is a valuable Item in the fur trade.

Mr. Coypu is two feet long, plus a thick tail one foot long.  He has a big head, Small round ears, and a very ratty face.  His rodent teeth give him a very fierce Expression, and this toothy mouth is set off with a set of stiff, long whiskers.  His Back feet are webbed for swimming, and his shaggy hair looks somewhat like a raggedy Rug.  His coat, however, is far more than what it seems to be.  Actually, it is two Coats   and undercoat and an overcoat.  The undercoat next to his skin is made of Short, soft, waterproof fur.  The overcoat is made of long, stiff, guard hairs.  When He comes from a swan, the tapered tufts of his shaggy overcoat drain off the water, And with a few shakes of his body, the wet coypu becomes a dry coypu.  When his pelt is sent to market, the guard hairs are removed.  The soft undercoat is sold as a fur called nutria ‑, which is the name the Spanish, gave to the coypu.  Nutria is from the Spanish word for otter, and nutria fur is very like the fur of the Otter.  The coypu fools us with his shaggy cast, and he also fools us with his fierce Expression.  His toothy mouth does not mean that he is a meat eater   far from it. The coypu dines on plants and weeds that grow in and near the water.

Coypu have been taken to live in several other countries where they are set free to multiply and later trapped for their furs.  The shaggy water rats frown South America Thrive in the swampy marshes of Louisiana, and New Jersey.  If food is scarce, however, they may leave their swamplands and raid the nearby crops and vegetable gardens.