Coypu Control Organisation: Records

This series contains annual accounts of the Coypu Control Organisation, minutes and papers of the Organisation's annual general and management committee meetings, and reports of the Coypu Research Laboratory to the Committee or AGMs, from 1971 to 1989.

One particular pest required special measures to be taken to ensure its control and eventual elimination. Coypu, a rodent native of South America, were farmed commercially for their fur in the 1930s, and following escapes during the Second World War, established feral colonies in the Norfolk Broads and elsewhere. By the 1950s and 1960s, the coypu were beginning to cause serious damage, both to crops and the environment. To curb this problem, the Coypu Control Organisation was established in October 1971, funded jointly by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the relevant Internal Drainage Boards and the Anglian Water Authority. By 1989, the organisation had succeeded, by intensive trapping, in eradicating the feral coypu population, and it was disbanded in February of that year.