And the sight of this huge (and apparently long-deceased) rodent on the sand in St Ouen’s Bay certainly had more than a few Islanders raising their eyebrows and watching their step.
But the animal was likely to have been nothing more than a coypu – a beaver-like creature which originates from South America and which was introduced to France and parts of the UK, primarily by fur farmers.
It is thought to have come from the coypu colonies in the Rance river, which flows into the sea between St Malo and Dinard.
Environmentalist Bob Tompkins, who writes weekly nature pages for the JEP, said: ‘It is almost certainly a coypu that has found its way out of the Rance barrage.
‘We tend to get one or two a year and they are likely to be old, infirm or possibly even dead when flushed through into the sea. They usually turn up on the east coast, although with consistent easterly winds this one was drawn out around to the west.’
