Strange Wetlands: R.O.U.S. –Capybara—the Master of the Grasses

The world’s most famous capybara, the largest rodent in the world, is living in Texas. His name is “Caplin ROUS” and he’s pretty darn cute at 100lbs, despite his razor-sharp teeth, capable of taking a chunk out of his owner’s leg (through denim). Caplin the Capybara was recently featured on 20/20 http://abcnews.go.com/2020/
video/live-2100-lb-bison-11896439?&clipId=11896439
&playlistId=11872151&cid=siteplayer (after the bit about the pet bison named “Wild Thing.”) Caplin ROUS even has a blog and almost 5,000 Facebook fans http://gianthamster.com/about/ and http://www.facebook.com/pages/Caplin-Rous-The-Worlds-Most-Famous-Capybara/175370938657?ref=search#!/pages/Caplin-Rous-The-Worlds-Most-Famous-Capybara/175370938657

Capybaras—Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris, (the Latin name that means “water pig,”) live in subtropical wetlands and congregate in herds of 10-20, communicating in squeaks, chirps and whistles. Its common name means “master of the grasses;” it’s semi-aquatic and an herbivore. Their unusually large size is what inspired the “R.O.U.S.” (Rodents of Unusual Size) in the fire swamp scene in “The Princess Bride.” But in real life, the capybara is almost synonymous with wetlands management and conservation in Central and South America—Columbia, Brazil, Peru and Argentina, including the Amazon rainforest. http://www.ecopaedia.com.ar/cv/pdf/Assessment.pdf

The big rodents prefer fens and marshes, lagoons, cutwaters and erosion ditches. When they hide from predators, such as pumas, jaguars, anacondas, people or harpy eagles, capybaras submerge themselves in water with just their eyes and nose poking out. http://www.unique-southamerica-travel-experience.com/capybara.html (Beware scary video of an anaconda eating a capybara.)

Although it’s not an endangered species, the biggest threat to capybaras is a loss of wetland habitat. Nature reserves, such as Manu National Park in Peru, have ensured some habitat for a selection of capybaras. But conservation managers throughout Central and South America are still concerned with the rapid loss of rainforest habitat—more than 33 million acres lost every year. For anyone who has traveled there, seeing a capybara sitting on the banks of the Amazon River or its tributaries is a common sight. In Brazil’s Pantanal, the world’s largest wetland ecosystem, the population of capybaras is about a half million. The Rainforest Alliance has used the capybara as a symbol for rainforest conservation efforts and to attract interest to its Adopt-a-Rainforest program. http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/
education/documents/capybara_color.pdf Capybaras are hunted for their meat and skins. Their ability to reproduce all year long has enabled their success in the wild, despite predation. Wetland loss is really the only threat to the capybara.

The modern-day capybara is smaller http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/
entry/Capybara (and dog-like) that its ancestor, also called capybara, though now extinct. The extinct capybara (Neochoerus pinckneyi) lived in North America and was bigger than a Grizzly bear. That would be R.O.U.F.S. (Rodents of Unusually Freakish Size). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neochoerus_pinckneyi

Recently in California, there is a capybara on the loose, most likely an escaped pet. http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/mysterious-rodent-turns-225740879.html