Genetic testing revealed that nutria living in California since 2017 are most closely related to a population in central Oregon—too far for the creatures to have traveled on their own Biologists with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife are working hard to eradicate nutria from the state. Michael Macor / The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images Someone appears to have intentionally introduced an invasive rodent to California, decades after the creatures were eradicated from the state. For the past nine years, wildlife officials have been battling  nutria , a large, semiaquatic rodent with a long tail and beaverlike teeth that’s native to South America. The destructive critters, which can wreak havoc on wetlands, crops and water infrastructure, were  discovered in 2017  in San Joaquin Valley, an agricultural area in the middle of the state. That was a bit of an unwelcome surprise, because nutria were thought to have been wiped out in California in the 1970s.…