This is a picture of me, James Edmunds, holding a nutria rat. Nutria rats are a real problem in steamy sub-tropical Louisiana, where I live. They have no natural predators (despite what the toothy alligators would have you think) and they are eating up the swamp plants. Biologists call what they do to a patch of marsh an "eat out." They take the roots and everything. But Puddin' here, he doesn't look evil, does he?