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The Three That Got Away

1964 , Norfolk (Norfolk)

Cat no. 1266

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The coypu in East Anglia looking at how they became wild in Britain and the efforts made to control the population.

Opening scenes of this film show river scenes and then a coypu in the river's edge. There are traps along the river and a man with a golden Labrador dog. We must destroy the coypu. This is the first proclamation of the film. The reasons for this are that they destroy crops, sugar beet are one of their favourites and that they damage drainage systems. We don't want coypu all over the country. Not everyone agrees. Mrs. Carter encourages coypu to use her lake near Great Yarmouth. Over views of coypu swimming, she views them as quite amusing little animals. She describes them as gentle and intelligent. She feels that coypu trapping is wrong. She maintains that all animals cause damage. A Coypu is shown to the camera to demonstrate its tail and webbed feet. Its teats are on its back to enable the young to feed whilst the mother swims. The coypu is shown eating. It is classified as a rodent and is most closely related to the porcupine. A map shows its native territory in South America; Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. This is contrasted with a shot of the Norfolk territory that they have made their own.The film explains how the coypu came to Britain. Between the wars the fur of the Coypu, Nutria, was highly desirable and very fashionable. Ted Ellis explains how at one of the earliest coypu farms at East Carleton the floods of 1937 enabled four Coypu (one was run down on the road) to escape and make their way into the rivers. By the 1940s they were established in the Broads, in West Norfolk, in Suffolk and Lincolnshire. There is a lengthy sequence of coypus swimming and of them on land. Coypus, the commentary explains, are vegetarian. However, four adult coypus can eat the same amount of grass as a sheep. This led farmers to demand action against the coypu. The rat-like tail of the Coypu made it easy for farmers to equate them in the public mind with rats, therefore as vermin. However, coypus are very clean, explains Mrs. Carter, and there is film of the coypu carefully washing itself. Coypus are nocturnal and there is film of the coypu swimming at dusk. Its cries are heard across the water. There are shots of it swimming. The commentary explains that the Coypu is a fastidious eater and demonstrates the feeding mechanism with the aid of a skull. There is a still of a headline from the Eastern Daily Press, Coypu Clean Up Third Of Farm's Kale Crop. There is a shot of a coypu scuttling through a field and a shot of the damage left. Being fastidious feeders, the coypu are also wasteful feeders, destroying far more than is necessary. By day coypus like to snuggle up in a nest. If these are not available, they burrow into the riverbank. These burrows, about two feet under the surface, go several yards into the bank. They cause serious damage to embankments, which are vital flood protectors, and to bridges. They have land exits which can be dangerous to animals and machinery. There is a shot of a tractor with a wheel stuck in a coypu burrow. Coypus reproduce rapidly. One coypu can produce six more per year. By 1961 the projected Coypu population was 3.6 million. The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food decided to take action. Charles Stafford Mead of MAFF shows a map that surveys the coypu population and the figures caught by trapping. A coypu trap is demonstrated. The coypu is easily caught because it has developed no fear of man. The traps are removed by the MAFF. Some are used in laboratories and others are humanely killed. There are shots from a laboratory of a scientist examining a pregnant doe. From 1957 farmers were taking action against the situation themselves, sometimes in conjunction with the river boards. Captain Hutton and the Yare Valley Rabbit Clearance Society are filmed at work as are the Raveningham And District Rabbit Clearance Society. Terry Ward of the Society explains about coypu catching and the attempts to make the process commercial. He claims to have caught 1000 coypu in 8 weeks. In the winter of 1963 up to 250 a day died from lack of food. Terry Ward removes a pregnant doe that he has shot from the pen. He cuts her open and removes the live young. He revives them and within 3 minutes they are swimming and climbing the bank.The commercial uses are less successful. The fur is no longer fashionable and therefore not valuable. There are interior shots of the fur processing plant. Ted Ellis advocates eating them. He prepares coypu casserole, claiming that the meat is superior to rabbit. Tom Crawford has a pet coypu that he adopted as a youngster. He is filmed with Jerry following him down the road. There are shots of young coypu in his home. The coypu have to be kept in a climb proof and burrow proof pen. They must be kept under MAFF licence at £5. The gentle, friendly coypu are contrasted with mink. These are not vegetarian, they are meat eaters. They are not gentle, they are vicious. A bloodied hand is shown to the camera. This damage was inflicted through a leather handling glove. Mink have been found wild in Devon and caught in traps in East Anglia. The final shots of the film show the coypu swimming.

Keywords

Coypu; Crops; Pest control

  • Producer : Douglas Fisher

  • Camera : Douglas Fisher

  • Script : Clifford Dyment

  • Editor : Pater Neal

  • Other : Michael Smee

  • Other : Ted Ellis

  • Production company : Granada

Manifestations

The Three That Got Away

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