Coypu are classified as invasive in Virginia. USGS NAS records seven nonindigenous occurrences in the state with an established population, not just scattered escapees from the fur farms that once raised this South American rodent for its pelt.
Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge accounts for the bulk of the state’s mapped sightings, eight of the named-location reports, which fits the coypu’s preference for coastal marsh, exactly the habitat this refuge protects. The concentrated feeding that gives coypu their reputation for turning rooted marsh into open mud is easiest to document in a managed wetland like Back Bay, where staff and visitors are already watching the vegetation closely.
Reports climb in April and May and again in October, and with 74 iNaturalist and 57 GBIF records fairly close in number, Virginia sightings come from both casual photographs and more formal survey or removal data, a mix typical for an invasive species actively being tracked rather than simply observed.
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