How dare you call coypus “rats” (Waiter, there’s a rat in my burger: rodent on the menu in Moscow, 19 November). I have fond memories of a scientific conference at London Zoo on “introduced mammals”. Coypu was served for lunch in the Fellows’ restaurant and was excellent. The Russian delegates could not understand the Brits’ huge (and ultimately successful) campaign to eliminate our coypus. Why did we not eat more of them?
Rodents (not rats) have long been gourmet items: Romans fattened edible dormice, guinea pigs (close coypu relatives) are popular in South America and wartime GIs would pay well for a grey squirrel for the pot. I was pleased to see that you can now buy grey squirrel meat online in the UK.
Dr David Corke
Organic Countryside CIC
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