Me in the Bluebonnets
This weekend my owner made this big deal about how we had to get my picture taken in the bluebonnets. Bluebonnets are the Texas state flower and it is like a ritual here for people to get their photo, or their kids or their pets photos, taken with the flowers. It helps that they are about the first flower to bloom in this part of the country and there’s not too much else growing at that time. I think she was so obsessed by it because the past two years, basically ever since I was born, we have been in a terrible drought and there weren’t any bluebonnets so I don’t have any baby photos with me in them.
Lots of people stop by the side of the road–including freeways, which doesn’t seem to safe to me–to get their bluebonnet photos. We are lucky in that we have them right on our property. So my owner determined to get me out for a long walk in the Front 15 (that’s what we call the 15 acres in front of our house) and plop me down in those flowers for a photo. Naturally, I put up a fight.
Continue reading “The Front 15” »
My nose at about 6 weeks old
I have often said that my nose is my cutest feature. I don’t get much argument about that. (Some people think it is my eyes but they are just wrong.) But here’s something you may not know about my nose: it changes over time!
Continue reading “My Best Feature” »
Entry #0: Elly Fox "Capy Paradise"
My FaceBook friend, Elly Fox, made this great photo of me standing with her and her boyfriend Dim Dim Dim (weird name but sometimes you just can’t explain humans).
I really like that photo. It makes me think I could be with all of my friends. Wouldn’t that be great? Well, maybe I can’t do it in real life but I can do it in Photoshop. So I am making my first GiantHamster.com Contest. Let me explain the rules.
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And the Winners Are:
- Entry #40: Caplin & Dalai Lama, Angelica Clemmer
- Entry #9: Holding Up the Monument, Issac
- Entry #11: Kissing with a Walrus, Maude Perreault
I need for the winners to send me their physical addresses in an email so I can send them their prizes.
If you ask me, everyone was a winner, even those that didn’t enter, because the entries were all so cute, inventive and entertaining. I really loved seeing me in all those different places with all those different people! Thanks everyone!
1st, 2nd and 3rd all get the same prize, a mug from my CafePress shop. Here’s what it looks like.
Prize Mug!
Continue reading “CONTEST! Putting Caplin Rous in My Life” »
Capybara: The World’s Largest Rodent (Super Sized!)
by Natalie Lunis
Book Type: Juvenile, non-fiction (ages 4 -8)
Date of publication: 2009
Publisher: Bearport Publishing
Synopsis:
Topics covered include:
- A Really Big Rodent
- Wet, Grassy Homes
- Big Teeth
- Noisy Groups
- Bringing Up Babies
- Extra-Large Enemies
- Everybody into the Water!
- Sneaky Swimmers
- Rodent Ranches
The book’s format is that each left-hand page contains up to about 80 words of text and one to three small photos with the opposing page having a single large photo on the same topic.
Interior page of Capybaras: The World's Largest Rodent
Owner’s Review: 
This book is more for the lower end of the age range rather than the higher. The text is informative, as far as it goes, which is not very far. All of the data is correct, the layout is nice and the photos are wonderful. In fact, I’d buy it for the photos alone. But I don’t think the text is entertaining enough for very young and it is not informative enough for the older children.
Caplin’s Review:
I liked this book. As my owner said, the photos are really great! There is one of a capybara jumping into the water that is just the perfect action shot. The photo of the jaguar looked just as fierce and terrifying as those awful cats really are. And photos of the baby capys with their moms were so sweet. I also liked the way the little facts were framed in capybara fur. There wasn’t much text but what it said was a pretty good description of us capybaras.
The wide variety of animals that I can be confused with is a constant source of amazement to me. How could you humans mistake a cute animal like a capybara with some of these–let’s call them visually challenged–animals? I don’t get it. Nevertheless, it does happen and I am here to set the record straight. I am NOT a peccary or javelina or skunk hog or whatever other name you want to call these animals.
Collared peccary in Venezuela
I’m not saying peccaries aren’t cute. They have a certain charm about them. But look at that nose! Now look at the photo of my nose.
My profile including my adorable nose
Do they look anything alike? No.
Here are some other ways we are different:
- Peccaries have hooves (they are in the group with even-toed hoofed animals), capybaras have webbed feet.
- Peccaries are omnivores, capybaras are herbivores
- Peccaries have tusks, capybaras have self-sharpening incisors
- Peccaries live from the American Southwest, through Central America and South America, capybaras are restricted to southern Panama and eastern South America.
- Peccaries top out at around 90 lbs, that would be a puny capybara
- Groups of peccaries sometimes attack and kill humans, capybaras are sweet, docile animals
- Peccaries have an unpleasant odor from a scent gland on their back, capybaras have a nose scent gland whose odor is not noticeable by humans
- Peccaries can run up to 20 mph, no one bothers to clock capybaras because we are so slow
- Peccaries live up to 24 years, capybaras, sadly, live only 12-14 years
Here are some ways we are similar:
- Our overall body shape is long and narrow
- We overlap through much of our South American ranges
- We both have very coarse hair
- We are about the same length and height even though capys weigh more
- We both have small ears (although capy ears are much cuter)
- Jaguars, crocodiles and caiman will eat capybars or peccaries
I hope that clears up any confusion you have had on this topic. Do not feel too badly, lots of people make this mistake. But look again at the nose on that peccary and my nose. Seriously, don’t confuse us again.
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