Overview

• WILD data show nutria in 35% of participating hunting districts in 2023, roughly double 2015, and newer nationwide totals are pending because surveys are not annual.
• Hunters removed nearly 117,500 animals in the 2023–24 seasons, a record, with almost three quarters taken in Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia and about half caught in traps.
• Urban prevalence is extreme, with occurrences reported in 93% of Bremen districts and 74% in Hamburg.
• Experts warn that burrowing undermines dikes and grazing strips reed belts, threatening flood protection and local biodiversity.
• Mecklenburg-Vorpommern reports a rise from about 143 culled a decade ago to 4,037 across the past year and the first half of 2025.