Kapi’yva Exotics: Part III

Garibaldi Rous' Dad, Capy

Owner’s Blog:

So much has happened in the past few weeks that I haven’t had a chance to finish off blogging about my trip to Pearland, TX to see Garibaldi’s family and the wonderful facilities at Kapi’yva Exotics. So far I have covered all the non-capybara animals in Part I of this series. Part II focused on Gari’s Mom and baby sister. This part covers all of the other capybaras there but especially Garibaldi’s dad, Capy.

Liz Capaldi feeding Capy

It was really great to see how friendly Garibaldi’s father, Capy, is. He was Justin’s first capybara and he got him not long after I got Caplin Rous. Justin always said that Capy had a great personality and he sure proved it on our visit. But I have to admit that all of Justin’s capys seemed happy and friendly.

Liz and Capy

Capy leads a pretty good life. Most of the time he shares his large enclosure with three female capybara that form his band, including Garibaldi’s mother, Scarlet. Scarlet and one other of Capy’s mates were in separate smaller enclosures while we were there since they were taking care of babies.

Capy's enclosure

I think that is Capy sitting in front of one of the civet cages. You can see he has a big water trough to swim in toward the back of the photo. And a toy slide. It was a photo of Capy and his girls on that slide that inspired me to get one for Caplin Rous. I haven’t taught Garibaldi to use it yet.

Down the middle of the enclosure you can see a trench. They need a lot of drainage because Houston gets some serious downpours. I’ll bet that, after a rain, Capy puts that trench to good use.

Capy waiting for more food from Liz

You have to admit that Capy is pretty cute, even for a capybara. Justin told me once that he is his favorite, and no wonder.

Portrait of Capy

Okay, that’s it. I can’t make this post just about Capy so I am going to have to move on.

Capy's teeth

Alright, I couldn’t stop that abruptly. This is absolutely the last photo of Capy that I am going to post though. Capy’s teeth look a bit long in this photo but Justin says they have already chipped off a bit and are now shorter than this. This is a natural part of capybara biology.

A capybara enclosure

This is another capybara enclosure. You can’t see the whole thing in this photo. On the far left you get just a glimpse of the crested porcupine pen, the capy enclosure continues behind that. I think there are three capys in this pen, one male and two females, except that one of the females has been removed to a smaller pen since Justin expected her to give birth any day.

Capy couple

This is a pair of capybara that live in the enclosure in the previous photo. The male is in the back.

Is this my good side?

As you can see, all of Justin’s capybara look healthy, happy and friendly.

Alas, eventually we had to leave. Justin had a million things to do that day and we faced a long drive home. Pearland and Buda might look relatively close on a map of Texas but actually they are very far apart.

Squirrel god

On the drive back we stopped to take a photo of a giant squirrel statue. I refuse to purchase anything at this place because they have the world’s most annoying sign. It is huge, it is high and it is very, very bright. This place is out in the middle of nowhere and that sign can be seen for miles. It flashes in the most annoying way. I cannot imagine that it has not caused at least a few accidents. I hate them. But I like the squirrel. Coral apparently worships it.