The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has released a list of five invasive animals that Americans can hunt, catch and cook.
Eating invasive species can help protect native wildlife by reducing the numbers and limiting the damage these species cause to ecosystems, FWS spokesperson Erin Huggins wrote in her list, which was published on the agency’s website.
Fox News Digital spoke to various chefs and hunters to get their take on the flavor profiles of these invasive but “downright delicious” animals.
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Check out these five.
1. Nutria
Native to South America, nutria are invasive inhabitants of the Gulf Coast, Atlantic Coast and Pacific Northwest, according to the FWS.
Also known by its scientific name of “Myocastor coypus,” the semiaquatic herbivore has meat that is “lean, mild and tastes like rabbit,” Huggins wrote.
Nutria meat is “lean, mild and tastes like rabbit.” (iStock)
Eric Cook, a New Orleans chef who owns Gris-Gris and Saint John restaurants, told Fox News Digital that nutria “is such a crazy invasive species” and was doing so much “damage to the land” that his group experimented with it on the menu.
“And it failed tremendously,” he said.
2. Northern snakehead
The northern snakehead, or “Channa argus,” is a sharp-toothed fish native to East Asia.
These air-breathing fish can live outside a body of water for several days and are able to wiggle from one freshwater habitat to another, according to the FWS.
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Northern snakeheads were first found in a pond in Maryland in 2002; two years later, they were detected in the Potomac River, according to the FWS.
They’ve since been spotted throughout nearly all the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
Commonly found in mid-Atlantic or southeastern U.S. waterways, the snakehead “is a meatier white meat, edging toward chicken,” said Ryan Callaghan, MeatEater’s director of conservation in Bozeman, Montana.
An angler holds up an invasive northern snakehead, which “is a meatier white meat, edging toward chicken.” (iStock)
Huggins described the snakehead as having “firm, white and flaky meat.”
“Try them in fish tacos, grilled or fried,” she wrote. “Just make sure they don’t bite you first.”
3. Green iguana
The green iguana is arguably the most visible of all the invasive animals on the list.
Native to Central and South America, these cold-blooded invaders have made sunny South Florida their home away from home.
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The large, plant-eating lizards thrive in South Florida’s warm climate, enabling them to reproduce and become a regular sight for residents and visitors alike.
Darcie Arahill, a Florida-based angler and content creator of Darcizzle Offshore YouTube videos that teach the art of fishing, said that these iguanas “breed like rabbits” and are “here to stay.”
The cold-blooded green iguana enjoys the tropical temperatures of South Florida. (iStock)
“They don’t eat any kind of meat, but because they’re vegetarians, they threaten the native wildlife or the native plants and flowers that we have here in Florida,” Arahill told Fox News Digital.
Iguanas also dig tunnels that erode seawalls, Arahill said.
She’s harvested them and posted YouTube videos about how to cook them.
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“Iguana is really good,” she said.
Arahill, who lives along a canal, said she uses her bow and arrow to shoot them in her backyard. She said the tail is the “best part,” but the bigger the lizard, the more meat there is on the legs.
Arahill likes to boil iguana meat in water with potatoes and carrots, almost like a stew, “to the point where the meat just falls off the bone.”
The bigger the iguana, the more meat there is on the legs, a Florida angler told Fox News Digital. (iStock)
Then she’ll plate the stew on top of rice – “and I swear it is so good.”
Arahill said iguana tastes like pulled pork.
“You don’t know the difference,” she said.
4. Invasive carp
Another invasive fish is the carp.
Bighead, silver, black and grass carp species, native to East Asia, are collectively known as invasive carp.
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“Invasive carp are fast-growing and prolific feeders that out-compete native fish and leave a trail of environmental destruction in their wake,” according to the National Invasive Species Information Center’s website.
“The four types of invasive carp currently found in the U.S. were imported into the country for use in aquaculture ponds. Through flooding and accidental releases, black, grass, bighead and silver carps found their way into the Mississippi River system.”
Invasive carp are prolific feeders that have found their way into the Mississippi River system. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Because the Mississippi River system serves as a “giant freshwater highway,” this has given invasive carp species “access to many of the country’s rivers and streams,” the site also says.
MeatEater’s Callaghan, who has some experience with bighead and silver carp, told Fox News Digital that the taste is “very mild to almost neutral.”
He said they’re zooplankton feeders, “so they don’t have to work very hard.”
The carp’s bone structure is “probably the biggest reason they haven’t taken off as a grocery store fish,” Callaghan said. It “takes some practice to filet them efficiently and avoid the bones.”
5. Feral hogs/wild boar
Feral hogs or wild boars, known by their scientific name “Sus scrofa,” are a “full-blown ecological disaster,” Huggins wrote.
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Native to Europe and Asia, these animals can be found in the Southeast, Texas, California and beyond.
“I have never had a bad hog.”
Wild hogs can be found throughout Florida in a variety of habitats. Yet according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, they “prefer oak-cabbage palm hammocks, freshwater marshes and sloughs, pine flatwoods and more open agricultural areas.”
These swine “eat a variety of plants and animals and feed by rooting with their broad snouts. They may disturb the soil and ground cover vegetation and leave the area looking like it has been plowed.”
Feral hogs use their broad snouts to help eat plants and animals. In doing so, they tear up pastures. (iStock)
Danielle Prewett, a Texas hunter, chef and author of the cookbook “MeatEater’s Wild + Whole,” told Fox News Digital that hogs would “tear up all of the pastures” on her family’s ranch — so she and her husband “built a huge trap” to catch them.
“That’s one way to harvest these hogs,” Prewett said.
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As a food, Prewett said, hog gets a bad rap.
“I have never had a bad hog,” she noted.
While “a lot of people have a lot of really negative things to say about hogs,” Prewett said, she believes it mostly has to do with “how the meat is processed.”
“I have never had a bad hog,” a Texas hunter and chef told Fox News Digital. (iStock)
“Hogs have several glands, scent glands underneath their skin, and if you accidentally cut that when you’re removing the hide and processing it, it can really tank the meat and make it smell and taste really, really terrible,” Prewett said.
She said hog is “really delicious,” but the flavor of every animal is “going to be based upon whatever it is that they’re eating.”
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“If you’re eating [hog from] somewhere where there’s no good food source, they’re going to taste differently and reflect that,” she said.
