Peculiar Creature #4: The Capybara

The capybara is the world's largest rodent, only found in parts of South America.  It enjoys heavily forested areas with ample amounts of water.  The capybara consumes 6-8 pounds of grasses a day, and can hold its breath underwater for up to 5 minutes at a time.  In addition to these quirky facts that make the capybara uniquely cool, it also has a strange combination of physical features that make it adorable (the babies are especially cute). Rodent? Adorable? When's the last time you heard that in the same sentence?

After viewing these animals that resemble a combination of a rat, guinea pig, squirrel, and rhinocerous, you've hopefully reversed your initial disgusted reaction of the "world's largest rodent". Hearing this phrase made me picture the giant scary rats from the Nutcracker, but the capybara is far from frightening.  It has a squirrel face: squirrel eyes and little squirrel ears, and it's short and stocky like a guinea pig.  Its body looks like a rhinocerous, and the texture of its fur is that of a rat.  Who thought combining these strange characteristics into the world's largest rodent could turn out well?  I don't know about you, but I'd be first in line for a cuddly capybara stuffed animal.

Looks aside, the capybara differs from other members of the rodent family because of its calm nature.  It's a social animal that travels in groups dominated by males, but it can be easily domesticated.  It's loyal, protective, and cuddly, like a puppy! Except better.  This woman in Texas keeps a capybara as a pet, saying he gets protective sometimes and often follows her around with frequent "eep" noises erupting from his mouth:

He looks like a cat sitting on her lap like that! Who would have thought that a rodent could be so cute, cuddly, and affectionately friendly? Not me.  I'd much rather have a capybara instead of a dog or a cat- I now know what I want for Christmas next year.

Here's a link to the article about the Texas woman and her capybara, Caplin: http://www.peoplepets.com/news/strange/texas-woman-keeps-world-s-largest-rodent-as-a-house-pet/1