THE
COYPU'S TALE
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| HUNTED: Russell Sewell, at Wheafen Broad,
Surlingham, in December 1960, looks delighted with his haul
of coypu corpses |
It was almost 70 years ago that several coypu escaped from a Norfolk
farm at East Carleton and started spreading through the region’s
waterways.
By the end of the final eradication scheme in 1988, it had cost
the taxpayer millions of pounds to eliminate the coypu – originally
introduced from South America for fur farming. The lost production,
crop damage and impact on river and flood defences must have added
tens of millions to the final bill.
And, it all happened because a flood in 1937 flattened some galvanised
iron sheets at East Carleton Manor and the coypu were able to escape.
| COYPU ENCOUNTERS |
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1957 – PC John Pyrperch
“arrested” a coypu in the garden of his home at
Magpie Road, Norwich. It was later released.
1959 – Harry Smith,
of Three Mile House, on the Bure, decided to give his wife
a fur coat. In three years, he killed 60 coypus and has enough
for a coat, said Arthur South, of the Norwich Fur Company.
1959 – A Sheringham
labourer, Robert Smith, described a running 10-minute fight
with a vicious coypu while fishing at the Beeston Cliffs end
of the East Promenade. The fight began when the coypu took
a piece out of Mr Smith’s trouser leg, fortunately missing
the skin. He managed to kick the animal over the sea wall
and it fell to its death.
1959 – Young angler
Reginald Gaze, who was after carp, found a friendly and inquisitive
coypu family. The younger was attracted by his fish paste
sandwiches, which proved irresistible and the following night,
he brought two litter mates with him.
1966 – In the campaign,
a bounty of 1s (5p) was paid by the ministry of agriculture
for each coypu destroyed.
1972 -Trapper Jack Brighton,
of Beccles, said that numbers have tripled in the past three
years. With a colleague, John White they caught 54 coypu in
three nights by setting traps. They are despatched using a
.22 revolver.
1975 - Big increase in
coypu numbers were reported at the annual meeting of the East
Anglian coastal branch of the Association of Drainage Authorities.
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It took another 20 years to convince the ministry of agriculture
that something needed to be done. One leading Norfolk landowner,
Maj Anthony Buxton, of Horsey, was convinced that action had to
be taken as numbers started getting out of control. He wrote letters
to the EDP and The Times but the ministry refused to take action.
As the damage to crops became ever more obvious, petitions were
handed to ministers.
And many people thought that the relatively harmless creature should
be left alone. It was a vegetarian and some said that it helped
by removing debris from watercourses and streams!
Action was eventually taken. Initially, the government responded
by working with the 23 rabbit clearance societies – part of
the structure set up by the Agriculture Act 1947. These societies
were given 50pc grant aid by the ministry for controlling coypu.
The trappers set to with enthusiasm and June 1961, the Acle Rabbit
Clearance Society killed 13,783, at a cost of roughly 7/1d (36p)
per head.
Whitehall finally accepted that coypu had to be controlled. It launched
a campaign on August 1, 1962, to rid the region of coypu with a
£60,000 grant over three years. The Coypu Clearance Campaign
for East Anglia had staff to sweep the coypu from 2,500 sq miles
of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.
While about 22,000 coypu had been killed in the summer of 1962,
the nearly 90pc mortality caused by the savage 1963 winter was further
reason for optimism. Efforts continued with “Operation Broadland”
– the final stage of the campaign to rid East Anglia of coypu.
It included a blitz on Wroxham Broad in February 1965 before the
holiday season.
On a visit to Norwich in January 1966, parliamentary secretary John
Mackie congratulated everyone on the campaign, which had ended on
December 31 after three and a half years. It cost £72,000
and achieved its objective of reducing coypu numbers to a level
that occupiers could take responsibility for their control.
Norfolk farmer and chairman of Coypu Control, Pat Hood, of Woodbastwick,
was thanked by the minister for his efforts and also of his colleagues.
However, a coypu control campaign would continue.
In summary, John Perrin, regional controller of the ministry of
agriculture, said that he did not think any of them had given the
campaign more than 50pc chance of success when it began but it had
exceeded beyond their expectations.
Mr Hood said that it was up to everyone to ensure that the problem
did not get out of hand. The Raveningham Rabbit Clearance Society
had agreed to link with other societies to form an “after-care
organisation for coypus.”
In east Norfolk and north-east Suffolk, from Cromer to Eye and Southwold,
a consortium of rabbit clearance societies would join patrols, search
and then deal with any coypu found.
Drainage boards were asked to pay 6d (2.5p) an acre to a central
fund to be run by Acle Rabbit Clearance society.
But the handful of survivors, which weigh between 14lb and 28lbs,
and can breed all year round, started spreading across Norfolk and
Suffolk again.
And once again, numbers started to soar. By the late 1970s, there
was such pressure from a coalition of wildlife, drainage, landowning
and farming interests that the decision was taken to fund a second
eradication scheme.
In 1981, the ministry was given £2.5m for a campaign to be
completed in 10 years. The Treasury, aware of previous failed initiatives,
insisted on a radical approach – the team of about 15 trappers
would be paid a substantial termination bonus when the task was
achieved.
It was completed in April 1988 when the last wild coypu was trapped
on the Ouse, near St Neots and officially declared a success later
that same year.
It had taken almost half a century since that initial escape from
East Carleton.
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