Daily Activity Of Nutria in Louisiana

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to determine nutria activity at all times throughout the day. The study was conducted on Rockefeller Refuge in Southwestern Louisiana and activity was measured with a recorder placed on a nutria trail. Each nutria crossing through the trail was determined within a five-minute period for each month during the year. The study revealed that activity was greatest at night and began declining at dawn. After daylight activity was very slight, and less than one-fifth the number used the trail per hour as during the night. Activity increased at dusk but was less than at dawn. Analysis of variance showed the data for nutria activity at various periods during the day to be significant at the 0.01 level of probability.