If you are in the UK you must go see these three adorable capybara babies as the Chessington Zoo! And follow this link for more adorable photos [...]]]>

Capy Trio Rocks Chessington Zoo

If you are in the UK you must go see these three adorable capybara babies as the Chessington Zoo! And follow this link for more adorable photos on ZooBorns.com.

My name is Noah, a boy capybara residing in Japan. I’ve just debuted as a Toyota car commercial film character, playing a pet capybara of a Japanese family which owns the car. The car is the Toyota Noah—but I’ve not got any reimbursement from Toyota and I [...]]]> Hi everybody who is supposed to be a capybara lover,

My name is Noah, a boy capybara residing in Japan. I’ve just debuted as a Toyota car commercial film character, playing a pet capybara of a Japanese family which owns the car. The car is the Toyota Noah—but I’ve not got any reimbursement from Toyota and I have nothing to do with selling this car to you—I’m not being bribed.

Check this out!

http://toyota.vo.llnwd.net/e1/toyota/noah/index.html

Oops, of course, it’s written in Japanese, which I understand perfectly. For the people who have a problem with Japanese, I’ll try to explain the Website page by page in English.

When you get in the URL above, you’ll see me sitting in my room with a laptop computer. Please come in, but make sure you take off your shoes before entering my house. It’s a Japanese custom to separate outside and inside by taking the shoes on and off. You’ll notice that my room is in typical Japanese style—I can sit on the floor that is covered with tatami mats, which are made of straw-like plants…you can tell that I’d really love that! At the right corner of the room, I laid my futon and pillow folded neatly. Japanese people unfold this kind of futon on the tatami mats when they sleep. It’s kind of nice as we can save space compared to the case in which we use a bed. Formally, the futon is supposed to be stored back in the closet to its right. That way, the space is absolutely empty during the day. The doors to the closet are sliding doors, which are also space-saving. The table is really low, which is suitable for those sitting on the yellow sitting pillows on the floor (called zabuton, which means “sitting futon”) while drinking green tea from the tea pot and cup on the table. You can notice that somebody is hiding in the closet and making noise—that is a famous baseball coach, who actually did my voice this time.

If you drag the mouse onto me, there is a caption says “click here and there in my room” and you can do it. There are 7 places that you can click: #1 the calendar, #2 the TV, #3 the radio, #4 the books, #5 the computer, #6 the window and the last, #7 the sliding door.

First, click the calendar for today’s twittering—I twitter on things every day, so if you click on a certain day on the calendar, you will play a video with my twitter for that day. Sorry, that is in Japanese and it’s too much to translate so I will skip this…

Second, click the TV, which shows you the making of the TV commercial in which I am featured, in four parts. The upper left part is how I observe my owner’s family; in the video I am pushing the busy family to go on a trip by giving them the car key. The upper right shows how I acted during the making of the commercial. The lower left is an interview with the actress who played the mother in the family. The lower right is an interview with a baseball coach who did my voice.

Third, click the radio, which plays a radio commercial with my voice.

Fourth, click the books, and my profile will be displayed. To the left there are my pictures, which can be displayed in larger form by clicking on the thumbnails. To the right is my detailed profile. For the people who don’t understand Japanese, I will try to translate. It says that my age is a secret, my gender is male, and my profession is a commercial film character named Noah. It also says that: my hobbies are bathing in a hot spring and feng shui; my talent is twittering; my favorite thing is going out on the weekend; and my voice is played by the coach of a famous professional baseball team. The pentagon is an analysis of my character. From the top of the pentagon and clockwise are: level of preference for the outdoors; promptness; obesity; sense of humor; and degree of wicked tongue. You can tell the degree of each by the number.

Fifth, click the computer, and you will see and hear the mother of the family explaining why the mother of the family decided to buy the Noah (the car, not the capybara). You need a Flash player for this.

Six, click the window, and there will be a page in which you can enter text to boast about your family, your Toyota Noah, etc. If this is well written, you have a chance to get a stuffed capybara character, Kapibara-san, from Toyota. However, this is mostly for Japanese users.

Seven, the sliding door will show you the famous baseball coach—Katsuya Nomura—who did my voice, as I told you above.

(Thanks to Chie Gough, who translates Capybara Madness into Japanese, for conducting this wonderful interview with Noah Capybara!)

(PS: I wonder how I can become the US Spokescapy?)

(PPS: I think Noah is going to steal my title of “World’s Most Famous Capybara.” I guess I’m okay with that.)

(PPPS: Even though Noah says his name is a secret, I estimate he is about four months old. Those who read this blog can probably make a similar estimation based on Noah’s apparent weight and the fact that his nose is very pink.)

Blancanieves exploring with her brother

Some of you may recall my post about a baby white capybara born on Christmas day. I said she was born in Bolivia but that was not true.  She was actually born at M’Bopicuá Breeding Station in Uruguay.  Her caretaker,  Juan Villalba-Macias, wrote me and explained my [...]]]>

Blancanieves exploring with her brother

Some of you may recall my post about a baby white capybara born on Christmas day. I said she was born in Bolivia but that was not true.  She was actually born at M’Bopicuá Breeding Station in Uruguay.  Her caretaker,  Juan Villalba-Macias, wrote me and explained my mistake. He also told me she is doing great and he sent some photos of her for me to share with my readers (after the break).

Juan holding Blancanieves

Blancanieves is an albino. That means she is unable to make the pigment that gives us capybaras our color. Some people wrote me and were concerned about her health. It is true that albinism can be very bad for animals and for people. In horses, there is a gene called “lethal white” and foals with that gene don’t develop correctly and always die right after they are born. Paint horses have a color called Medicine Hat where they are all white except their ears. Those horses are usually deaf. Cats have a similar problem and I think dogs do too. I don’t think we know yet if Blancanieves is deaf but rodents are not closely related to cats, dogs or horses so they is no reason to assume that she is.

Juan's wife, Dany, with a rapidly-growing Blancanieves

Albinism is always recessive. That is because an albino animal or person is missing a gene necessary to make the pigment. But there are two copies of every gene. If Blancanieves ever has babies with a normal colored capybara, all of her babies will be normal colored (I call it sorrel). They will have one broken copy of the gene from Blancanieves and one working copy from their father. That is what geneticists call heterozygous. The working copy will probably make enough pigment that the babies will be sorrel just like their father but it is possible they might be a little lighter colored.

Blancanieves with her brother

Because albinism is recessive, it is not possible to tell if her siblings, like her brother pictured above, have two normal colored genes or one normal gene and one albino gene. They could be heterozygous just like Blancanieves babies would be.

Albino animals and people do have trouble with their skin and eyes which are very sensitive to the sun. That is one reason they don’t do well in the wild. Another is that they are too easy for a predator to spot and fixate on. Little Blancanieves would find it hard to hide from a jaguar, especially at night.

Capybara family at Hato El Frio, Venezuela

(Owner’s Blog)

In Febrary of 2007, my kids (Coral & Philip Waters) and I went to Venezuela. One of the places we went was a large ranch called Hato El Frio in the Los Llanos region. Los Llanos is often reffered to as the [...]]]>

Capybara family at Hato El Frio, Venezuela

(Owner’s Blog)

In Febrary of 2007, my kids (Coral & Philip Waters) and I went to Venezuela. One of the places we went was a large ranch called Hato El Frio in the Los Llanos region. Los Llanos is often reffered to as the New World equivalent of the African plains. Such a tremendous abundance of wildlife! And among those swamps and plains roam the world’s largest rodents, the capybaras.

Capybaras have disappeared in parts of their range where they are over-hunted or where there has been significant habitat destruction due to farming, daming and deforestation. Hato El Frio was one place where they still occurred in large number due to the ranche’s progressive attitudes.

Hato El Frio (and Hato El Cedral, although I did not visit there) were experiments in sustainable ranching along with ecotourism. Dams were built to encourage wildlife to remain year-round and to provide more habitat for aquatic or semi-aquatic species. In addition, cattle and water buffalo were raised for meat. Capybaras were also “harvested” but in a sustainable manner. For decades the ranch maintained a science station that studied the affects of ranching on wildlife populations.

The following photos show some of the interesting animals that we saw on our week-long stay.

Tamandua or Lesser Anteater at Hato El Frio, Venezuela

Giant Anteater at Hato El Frio, Venezuela

Rufous-tailed Jacamar at Hato El Frio, Venezuela

Three species of Ibis at Hato El Frio, Venezuela

Scarlet Macaws Flying at Hato El Frio, Venezuela

Howler Monkey at Hato El Frio, Venezuela

I could go on but you are probably wondering what the point is. So let me get to it. The Venezuelan government, under Hugo Chavez, has nationalized Hato El Frio and Hato El Cedral. See this article, Venezuela Coverts Tourist Destination into Farm Land.

I doubt that they are even now maintaining the Hatos’ programs to rebuild populations of the seriously endangered Orinoco crododile, red-footed tortoises, Orinoco side-neck turtles or river dolphins. I doubt that they are concerning themselves with sustainability. These ranches have served as a beacon to the region as to what can be done to use the land while retaining wildlife. Now all of that is gone.

This is a terrible tragedy made even worse by the fact that most Americans–who live so close–don’t even know what the world is losing. Most Americans don’t even know what a capybara is. Caplin and I are devastated. No species is safe if people and governments don’t care.

(Follow this link to see more of my photos of Hato El Frio including more capybara photos.)

Me sharing my salt block with Kapibara-san

Sometimes I wish I lived in Japan. Here in Texas no one even knows that capybaras exist, let alone that we are the kings of all rodents. But in Japan things are different. In Japan people appreciate capybaras.

Here are some of the wonderful [...]]]>

Me sharing my salt block with Kapibara-san

Sometimes I wish I lived in Japan. Here in Texas no one even knows that capybaras exist, let alone that we are the kings of all rodents. But in Japan things are different. In Japan people appreciate capybaras.

Here are some of the wonderful capybara things in Japan:

1. They have Kapibara-san, a cartoon series that stars a capybara! See photo above and also capyblowg for examples. Capyblowg is actually a blog written by two Kapibara-san toys. Imagine.
2. The capybaras roam freely at zoos in Japan, not trapped in small pens or enclosures, and people can interact with them. Check out this video, Capybara Approach from CapybaraCamera. Actually, you need to check out all the photos on CapybaraCameras blog. She gets some really great shots and you can see people interacting with the zoo capys.
3. The Japanese have a strange art form made out of (in my opinion edible) paper called origami. You can make anything in origami. Even a capybara! That is so cool! I wish my owner were talented enough to do that.
4. Back to toys, there is a giant, life-sized stuffed capybara toy in Japan! I kid you not! Life-sized! Actually, I think it is even bigger than I am. This blog entry from CapybaraCamera shows what one looks like.

Japan seems like the place to be if you are a capybara or a capybara lover. At least for everyone except my owner who needs to stay right here with me all the time. She doesn’t need to go to Japan because she has access to a capybara all day every day.

So why is she going? She says it’s for work but is it really? Is she really just going to see those othe tame capybaras? Is she thinking of trading me in for a kinder, gentler model? And now I found out that Siatama–that’s where CapybaraCamera took photos of capybaras in a hot bath–is close to Tokyo, that’s where my owner is going. Maybe she is going to replace me with a life-sized stuffed animal capybara!

It is making me very upset so I’m just not going to think about it.

I was quoted in the LA Times this week in an article by Lindsay Barnett. Normally this would make me very excited and happy but the topic of the article brings much stress to [...]]]>

Two young capybaras cross the road (Image from LA Times)

Bolivia plans to export capybara meat to Venezuela;
famous capybara Caplin Rous is horrified.

I was quoted in the LA Times this week in an article by Lindsay Barnett. Normally this would make me very excited and happy but the topic of the article brings much stress to my little capy heart.

I am so worried about my wild cousins. It’s not like they don’t have enough to worry about with anacondas, jaguars, crocodiles, caiman, piranha, cars and humans hunting them for local consumption. Now my relatives in Bolivia are going to hunted and exported (dead) to Venezuela. I don’t think this is a good idea, and not just because we are adorable, smart, affectionate animals that would be much better appreciated alive.

Hunting capybaras will naturally make them much more reclusive. It will get harder and harder to spot them in the wild, even if their numbers don’t decline. As I said above, we are smart animals and we will figure out what’s going on in no time. This will hurt Bolivia’s ecotourism industy since ecotourists like it when they can see animals, especially large, cute animals like capybaras.

Also, capybaras are being ranched in Venezuela. It would be better to encourage that rather than importing animals from elsewhere. Ranching is (hopefully) done in a sustainable manner. The ranch owners have much more at stake in maintaining the local populations than hunters do. Sadly, hunting has greatly diminished our numbers, or even completely wiped us out, in large areas of our former range.

In some ways humans are smart but in others they are really slow learners. I hope they don’t learn too slowly for my wild cousins to survive.

Oh, and I wish people would stop saying that I should be in the wild! It’s starting to make me mad. The wild sure isn’t what it used to be.

Well, I hate to have to report this, especially after how excited I was for all you Calgarians when you got your capybara pair. I am always excited when some of my kind have the opportunity to teach more humans about us wonderful capybaras. But after just six months, [...]]]>

The lonely male capybara at Calgary zoo

Well, I hate to have to report this, especially after how excited I was for all you Calgarians when you got your capybara pair. I am always excited when some of my kind have the opportunity to teach more humans about us wonderful capybaras. But after just six months, things went horribly wrong for poor little Adali, right as she was reaching adulthood. She was crushed by a hydraulic gate! I can’t even say that without eeping. What a horrible fate for my poor cousin.

The zoo has said that the “accident” was a result of human error. But the person who killed Adali got only a two day suspension. How is that justice? The only good thing is he or she won’t be allowed to work with animals again.

Here are a couple of links to articles about this:

• Zoo spokesperson gives newsconference about incident
• Story with video of capybaras

Do you remember when I adopted a capybara at the San Antonio Zoo? Well, my owner finally got a chance to use the two free tickets and go down to meet my adopted cousins. The zoo people told us there were four capys but my owner (who was with my [...]]]>

Capybara encounter at San Antonio Zoo

Do you remember when I adopted a capybara at the San Antonio Zoo? Well, my owner finally got a chance to use the two free tickets and go down to meet my adopted cousins. The zoo people told us there were four capys but my owner (who was with my Russian stalker, aka Rezoner, aka Alex) only saw two.

According to the zoo people, the capys don’t have names. They don’t want to encourage people to think of zoo animals as potential pets. Well, that’s a fine how-do-you-do! And every animal deserves a name. I was thinking of Meg for the female (on the right) and Ryan for the male (on the left). Or maybe Betty and Lou.  Or Carly and Simon. But I just can’t decide. Post a comment if you have any ideas.

My owner and Rezoner picked a great day to go to the zoo. It was a Friday when most people are at work or school. And it rained buckets in the morning, discouraging even more people. My owner said they announced the total zoo attendance at the end of the day and it was only 358 people! So it was practically like having the zoo to themselves.

San Antonio Zoo Capybara Enclosure

As you can tell from the photo above, the capybaras have a really nice enclosure. You can see Betty here in the front, chomping on some greens while Lou hangs out way down at the end of the pond. They even have some birds that could (theoretically) land on their backs.

Female Capybara. Carley?

They two capys are incredibly cute and you can get right to eye-level with them without a glass or anything in between, which is not true at many zoos. It’s too bad they don’t have any actual grass to graze on. That is one of my favorite activities and it is quite different from eating food that has been picked and deposited for you. But you can’t have everything.

I don’t know why, but my owner wanted me to include photos of some of the other zoo animals. This next one is one I can appreciate.

Rock Squirrel at San Antonio Zoo

It is a zoo animal in that it lives in a zoo. But it is not confined to a cage. This is a cute little rock squirrel. We don’t have them at my house, possibly because we don’t have any rocks, but they are native to Texas.

Boat-tailed Grackle

Rezoner was fascinated by these birds even the next day when we saw them at lunch. They are some of the most common birds in this area. We don’t have many of them at my house because they prefer the city. I wonder if one would sit on my back? Their South American relatives do, I think.

My owner said I do not have to be afraid of the gharial in the next photo.

Gharial or gavial at San Antonio Zoo

Owner says they can only eat fish with that long, narrow snout. Still, they remind me of crocodiles and that is not good.

Rezoner apparently has a way with birds. This pied dove landed on him and wouldn’t get off until he shook it really hard.

Rezoner with an Australian Pied Dove

Why doesn’t that happen to me?

Well, that’s about it. But it is my opinion that every blog post should end with a photo of a capybara. Here are Ryan & Meg saying goodbye at the end of the day.

San Antonio Zoo Capybaras

Mother capybara with 5-day-old babies

Last weekend I had the chance to visit a local capybara owner who had two capys give birth on the same day. The ten babies were just five days old when I visited and it’s hard to imagine anything cuter. I just have to share the photos with all of [...]]]> (Owner’s post)

Mother capybara with 5-day-old babies

Last weekend I had the chance to visit a local capybara owner who had two capys give birth on the same day. The ten babies were just five days old when I visited and it’s hard to imagine anything cuter. I just have to share the photos with all of Caplin’s fans.

These babies will be offered for sale in a few weeks and, no, we are not getting a second capybara! If you contact me, I can send your email to their owner. PLEASE read the FACute and the post on When Capybaras Bite before considering getting a pet capybara. They are always incredibly cute but they are large animals and they do not have the tolerance of a dog or a cat.

Five-day-old capybara

Five-day-old baby capybara

The proud (but mud-covered) father

Babybara with Carl

These guys were really eepy but the parents didn’t seem to get upset about it. I don’t know why Coral and Carl, who visited with me, felt they had to put food on its head. This may well have been this little capy’s first solid food.

Babybara nose-taps

Wish I could post all my photos but this will have to do.