Caplin Rous on my tumblr blog

It occurred to me that not everyone knows how to find me on the web. I mean, obviously you know that I am here on my blog or you wouldn’t be reading this, but I am other places too.

What a relief that 20/20 appearance is behind me (literally in the photo above). It was so stressful not knowing if they were going to portray me in a good light or not. Sure I’m ultra-adorable but I do have my dark side.

The [...]]]>

Me and HP with Me and HP on TV

What a relief that 20/20 appearance is behind me (literally in the photo above). It was so stressful not knowing if they were going to portray me in a good light or not. Sure I’m ultra-adorable but I do have my dark side.

The best part of the whole show was the scene where Hello Pineapple, aka HP, was sitting on my head. She is the best and cutest guinea pig. Not many of her species would be willing to take such a precarious position. In general, guinea pigs are a little afraid of heights.

I also liked how John Berman showed a healthy respect for my teeth. It wasn’t quite as exaggerated as his reaction to Wildthing, the bison from north Texas, it was just in proportion to my size.

I was disappointed that Capycoppy didn’t show up except as backdrop in the above shot. And they didn’t really show me swimming which is where I show off my true grace and agility. Well, you can’t have everything and, on the whole, I think the show did a pretty good job of showing how cute and smart we capybaras are.

If you haven’t had a chance to see it, you can find it here or here. I am at the very end. I don’t know why I am on with bullying. That is an important topic to be sure but I would hate to have anyone (other than Coral) associate me with being a bully.

Anyway, drop me a comment and let me know what you think, especially about who is cuter, me, the bison or John Berman.

Remember my first contest, Putting Caplin Rous is My Life? It was about photoshopping me into a photo with you. I got a lot of really great entries but the problem was that not everyone has a good photo editor. All this time I’ve been feeling pretty sorry for those [...]]]>

Remember my first contest, Putting Caplin Rous is My Life? It was about photoshopping me into a photo with you. I got a lot of really great entries but the problem was that not everyone has a good photo editor. All this time I’ve been feeling pretty sorry for those people who can’t make an image of me with them. I know almost everyone wants to.

But looky-here! Sam Becker, an ardent rodent enthusiast, has created an application for iPhones that lets you put a wide variety of rodents into your life. And guess what! One of those rodents is me! See the above image made with Rodent Draw? That cute capybara on the bottom left is me! The other rodents are a flying squirrel, a prairie dog, a mouse, a guinea pig, a chinchilla, a hamster and a chipmunk. Inexplicably, there is also a ferret.

Rodent Draw creation by Kotaro Yokoyama

The photo above is by my friend Kotaro Yokoyama. He took the original photo (on the left) and used Rodent Draw to insert me. It came out pretty well! I am glad I’m not really there though because there is no place to swim in that photo and the grass looks very sparse.

I realize this doesn’t solve everyone’s problems because probably most people don’t have iPhones (my owner for instance), but it is a start.

As a disclaimer, I have never tried Rodent Draw, I don’t know Sam Becker outside of a couple of emails and I am not being compensated in any way for mentioning his application here. I just thought it was neat and it was also nice of Sam to ask permission to use my photo, which doesn’t always happen.

About a week ago my owner and I did a Skype interview with the Japanese TV station NHK for their show Tokodane Toku doga.

Sadly, our Skype isn’t very good because we live out in the country and have slow internet. The ended up not using practically [...]]]>

Me on the NHK website

About a week ago my owner and I did a Skype interview with the Japanese TV station NHK for their show Tokodane Toku doga.

Sadly, our Skype isn’t very good because we live out in the country and have slow internet. The ended up not using practically any of it. But they did use a bunch of video of me and of other capybaras in their show.

I have no idea what they said, well just a little tiny bit of an idea. My owner says tabatae means eat and I know kapibara means capybara. I am hoping my wonderful Japanese translator, Chie, will give us a quick summary of what they are talking about. I hope they didn’t say anything mean!

The capybara part of the video starts at 5:15.

————————————————————————————–

This is Chie’s translation.

動画サイトに世界中からたくさんの動画が投稿され、愛されている動物がいます。
Doga-saito ni sekaiju kara takusan no doga ga toko sare, aisareteiru dobutsu ga imasu.
There is a globally beloved animal whose videos were submitted from all over the world.

カピバラです。
Kapibara desu.
The capybara.

このカピバラのさまざまな表情を捉えた、日本人の動画が話題です。
Kono kapibara no samazama na hyojo wo toraeta, nipponjin no doga ga wadai desu.
First is a video by a Japanese poster which captured the capybaras’ various activities.

世界最大のネズミ、カピバラはおとなしい性格と愛嬌たっぷりの表情が人気の秘密。
Sekai saidai no nezumi, kapibara wa otonasii seikaku to aikyo tappuri no hyojo ga ninkino himitsu.
The world’s largest rodent, the capybara, gained its popularity from its mellow characteristics and affable activity.

大好物のキャベツを食べていると・・・白鳥におこられて、
Daikobutsu no kyabetsu wo tabete iruto—hakucho ni okorarete,
When it’s eating cabbage, its favorite food, a swan intimidates it…

それでも食べていると、またおこられちゃいました。
Soredemo tabete irut, mata okorarechaimashita.
Still trying to eat, again, intimidated.

遠くから、うらやましそうに眺めています。
Toku kara, urayamashiso ni nagamete imasu.
From a distance, it’s just giving an envious look…

カピバラと自由に触れ合うことができるこの動物園では、
Kapibara to jiyu ni hureau kotoga dekiru kono dobutsuen dewa,
In this zoo, where people can freely pet capybaras,

お尻をなでると、気持ちよくなってゴロン。
Oshiri wo naderuto, kimochi yoku natte goron.
when people rub its rear, it lazily lies down.

こっちのカピバラも、ゴローン。
Kocchi no kapibara mo goron.
This guy also lies down.

「なんてかわいいんだ。」
“Nante kawaii-nda.”
“So cute!”

「みていると、なんだか癒される。」
“Miteiruto, nandaka iyasareru.”
“Strangely relaxing to watchi!”

投稿者のフワフワカピバラさんは、日本中の動物園を訪ね、これまでに80本以上の動画を投稿しています。
Tokosha no fuwafuwakapibara-san wa, nihonju no dobutsuen wo tazune, koremade ni 80-pon ijo no doga wo toko shiteimasu.
Fuwafuwakapibara-san, the poster, has visited zoos all over Japan and posted over 80 videos so far.

撮影の時は、一瞬の表情を逃さないよう、カピバラの前から何時間も離れないそうです。
Satsuei no toki wa, isshun no hyojo wo nigasanai yo, kapibara no mae kara nanjikan mo hanarenai sodesu.
When he shoots, he doesn’t budge for hours in front of capybaras so that he doesn’t miss the very transient expressions shown by the capybaras.

「撮れば撮るほど、いろんなしぐさとか、他の動物との絡みとか、新しい魅力がどんどんでてくる、それが楽しくて投稿を続けているって感じです。」
“Toreba toruhodo, ironna shigusa toka, hokano dobutsu tono karami toka, atarashii miryoku ga dondon detekuru, sore ga tahoshikute toko wo tuduketeirutte kanji desu.”
“The more I shoot, the more I find additional charms of capybaras—their behavior, relationship with other animals and so on—and this is the pleasure of shooting videos and why I keep posting them.”

一方、アメリカでは、カピバラを自宅で飼って、動画を毎週のように投稿している人がいます。
Ippo, amerika dewa, kapibara wo jitaku de katte, doga wo maisyu no yoni toko shiteiru hito ga imasu.
On the other hand, there is a person who keeps a capybara at home and keeps posting videos almost every week in the US.

メラニー・ティペルドさんとカプリン君、3歳です。
Merani Tiperudo-san to Kapurin-kun, 3-sai desu.
Ms. Melanie Typaldos and three-year-old Caplin.

動画サイトに初めて登場したのは生後6週間の時でした。
Doga saito ni hajimete tojo shitano wa seigo 6 syukan no toki desita.
When he debuted on a video site, he was six weeks old.

それ以来、すくすくと成長していく様子をずっと記録してきました。
Sore irai, sukusuku to seicho shiteiku yosu wo zutto kiroku shite kimashita.
She has continued recording his healthy growth since then.

動物園では見せない姿を見ることができると、話題になっています。
Dobutsuen dewa misenai sugata wo mirukotogadekiru to wadai ni natte imasu.
His reports gained a reputation as we can observe his unique activities, different from capybaras in zoos.

体調をくずして寝込んでいる姿を投稿すると・・・
Taicho wo kuzushite nekonde iru sugata wo toko suruto…
When he was sick and resting,

「すごく悲しいよ」
“Sugoku kanashii yo.”
“Really sad.”

「早くよくなってください」
“Hayaku yoku natte kudasai.”
“We wish you all the best and a speedy recovery!!

投稿者のメラニーさんは、カプリン君を通じて、世界の人たちとつながっているのが嬉しいそうです。
Tokosya no Merani-san wa Kapurin-kun wo tsujite, sekai no hitotachi to tsunagatte irunoga ureshii sodesu.
Melanie is very pleased that she is connected with people all over the world through Caplin.

メラニーさんはいつもカプリンくんと一緒、投稿は、これからも、ずっと続きそうですね。
Merani-san wa itsumo Kapurin-kun to issho, Toko wa korekaramo, zutto tsuzukiso desune.
As Melanie is always together with Caplin, her posting will continue.

Me with Neptune

Against all odds, my famosity has extended beyond the run-of-the-mill 15 minute variety. I dare say I have achieved a full 30 minutes! This is great because as Capybara Ambassador it is my job to let people know about us capybaras, including how cute and how smart [...]]]>

Me with Neptune

Against all odds, my famosity has extended beyond the run-of-the-mill 15 minute variety. I dare say I have achieved a full 30 minutes! This is great because as Capybara Ambassador it is my job to let people know about us capybaras, including how cute and how smart we are. I am being super successful at that, not that I like to brag. I had a whole bunch of articles written about me this month, too many to put links to all of them so these are just some highlights. The photo of me with Neptune was one of the most popular photos used. I can understand why because we sure look cute together.

The LA Times

Planeta Bizzaro (in Brazil)

The Telegraph (in the UK)

EToday (in Russian!)

PEOPLEPets and msnbc.com

HLN.BE (Belgium)

I did a video segment for KENS5 in San Antonio, Texas

Here’s an article on Hobby.cz about me in Czech!

Here is an article about me in Pets Best Newsroom. Question is, why did they use a photo of some other capybara? That is not me.

I even got a dumb reference from the comedian, Dave Barry. Not sure I like those comments.

And wow! Look, here’s an article about me in Thai!

There were more, including one in a newspaper in Hong Kong that I couldn’t get a link to. So you can see that I am Capybara Ambassador Extraordinaire!

I want to thank Linda Lombardi of the Associated Press. She started this whole thing rolling with her article about me. Thanks Linda!

I have some of the most amazing friends in the world…and they’re not even all capybaras! I’d like you to meet two special friends, Emily and Elizabeth. Sure, they are cute human kids and we have that cute thing in common, but we also share another special [...]]]>

Emily & Elizabeth with Balloon Capybara

I have some of the most amazing friends in the world…and they’re not even all capybaras! I’d like you to meet two special friends, Emily and Elizabeth. Sure, they are cute human kids and we have that cute thing in common, but we also share another special attribute.

Elizabeth & Emily also have their own book! Seriously! (Probably their mom takes credit for their book just the way my owner takes credit for mine. That is lame.)

Did you notice what they are holding in the photo? It is a balloon capybara! Sadly, it turns out that capybaras are very hard to render in balloon. I think they did a pretty good job though. I especially like the color they chose. But the picture should give you a hint as to what their book is about. It is a instruction guide on how to make balloon animals. Who wouldn’t want to do that?

You can read more about them, their book and their fun encounters with everyone’s favorite capybara (me) on their blog. The title of their book is Kids Show Kids How to Make Balloon Animals. It’s a great idea for children’s parties and other events.

I think it would be fun if y’all would try to beat Emily & Elizabeth’s capybara-balloon rendition and send me photos of your creations. I’ll add the photos to this post. Come on! Let’s see how creative my fans can be.

www.oddee.com named me one of their 9 Most [...]]]> Here are some recent web pages and blogs that refer to me. Probably my fans should view these just to let them know how great you think I am. Not that I have a big head or anything. (I know. I do have a big head.)

www.oddee.com named me one of their 9 Most Unusual Pets. You should follow the links on the other pets too. Really amazing stuff!

ohhaveyouseenthis on blogspot.com posted a link to my Alien Capybara video.

Nothing to Do With Arbroath also posted a link to my Alien Capybara video. I think that is going to be one of my most popular videos. I look super cute in it.