A capybara statue at the Summit Park Zoo in Panama

Owner’s blog:

Sorry it has taken me so long to write this post. I have been sick for the past week. Nothing serious, just a cold and a cough and complete lack of mental focus. [...]]]>

A capybara statue at the Summit Park Zoo in Panama

Owner’s blog:

Sorry it has taken me so long to write this post. I have been sick for the past week. Nothing serious, just a cold and a cough and complete lack of mental focus. In fact, I’m still a little sick so this is going to be a short post and it may not be as coherent as most.

As you may know, Coral, Sheldon, Stacy and I all went to Panama to see the elusive lesser capybaras in the wild. As far as I know, it is not possible to see lesser capybaras in captivity. I do not know of any zoos or breeders who have them. Unfortunately, this is still true even after our trip. Try as we might, Stacy and I could not find a zoo in Panama that has capybaras. The closest thing we found was a statue of a capybara (shown above) at the Summit Park Zoo. It is a pretty nice statue but wouldn’t a real capybara have been so much better?

Gamboa Rainforest Resort taken from near the capybara wetland

This is where we stayed, the Gamboa Rainforest Resort. This is the only place where we actually saw lesser capybaras. I’d like to say something nice about the resort but that would be misleading. Okay, there were some nice things. The rooms were very nice. There were some really nice touches in the decor.

One of the doors to a guest room

The view was spectacular

The pool was pretty nice, as you can see.

Caiman and crocodile statues in the pool

Coral, Sheldon and I spent some time at the in-pool bar.

The view from our room

The view from our room included the capybara wetland. Unfortunately, I somehow failed to get a photo that shows the whole wetland, tiny as it was. You can see its little offshoot at the bottom right in the photo above. There was a small trench leading to the larger area. This is apparently fed from a pipe that (hopefully) drains runoff from the plentiful rainfall.

I’m not going to dwell on why we were so displeased with the resort but given its obvious beauty I feel I have to say something least you come off thinking it couldn’t have been so bad. Firstly, the service was terrible. If you ordered an item off the menu rather than eating the rather expensive buffet, you can to reconcile yourself to a three hour meal. You would need to get your own coffee or water or wait an hour for that. Ordering a drink at the pool bar likewise meant spending at least another hour there. There were no educational materials about the wildlife. There were no naturalists present or at least we did not have access to them. You were not allowed to go out on the grounds at night (we got in trouble for this but wrangled it into a personal tour with one of the groundskeepers). If you look at the first photo of the hotel at the top of this post, our room was just off the frame to the left. In order to exit the hotel, we had to travel all the way to a point off the frame to the right. In case of a fire, this place would be a death trap. There was another exit that could have taken us out to the front about one building over from ours but the gate was always locked. And the prices for everything were at least as expensive as at a similar hotel in the US. If you want more information, you can email me.

How many capybaras do you see?

I took the above photo using my 280mm lens from the balcony of our room. How many capybaras do you see? None? Look harder.

Three

Here’s a cropped version of the same photo. Hopefully you can now see three capybaras. There is the obvious one toward the bottom right. One with just its nose sticking out just a little way above it. A third is to the left of the second one. (Remember you can click on the photo to see a larger version.)

To be honest, I only saw two capybaras when I took this photo. It wasn’t until I got home and was editing them that the one with the nose popped up. I have a series of photos that are almost identical but the capybaras shift around a little and in some you can see that capy’s nose and in some you can’t.

Three lucky people get close to a capybara

In general the capybaras were very shy, unlike the common capybaras I saw in Venezuela, but the people in the above photo were able to get fairly close to one as it went from the smaller wetland area I mentioned earlier to the larger area what you can see in the upper part of this photo.

Another thing I didn’t like about Gamboa was the manicured lawn. In some ways this is very good for the capybaras because that is pretty delicious looking grass. In another, it represents a virtual desert in what would otherwise be a rain forest. This area has obviously been cleared with very little of the natural vegetation left. Of course, you expect some of that but it would be nice if they made a few more concessions for the wildlife. As far as the capybaras are concerned, it would be great if they would create another wetland area like this (or two or three). They have the room for it. That would give a lot more habitat for the capybaras, which would seem like a good thing for the tourists too. As it is, the wetland supports a surprising amount of wildlife including at least eight capybaras, a paca and a small caiman.

Paca or conejo pintado at San Diego Wild Animal Park

In case you don’t know what a paca is I have included a photo of one that I took at the San Diego Wild Animal Park last October. They are large rodents, maybe 15 – 20 lbs. I saw one at night at the capybara wetland but was not able to get its photo. They are pretty adorable animals.

The manicured lawn does also seem to be good habitat for agoutis. They were pretty common most everywhere we went in Panama and most people referred to them as “conejos” or rabbits.

Agouti at Gamboa

Of course they are not rabbits, they are actually rodents related to capybaras. I’ll have a separate post on them later.

That’s it for now. If you have any questions you specifically want me to answer, leave a comment and I’ll try to address it in my next Panama post.

A lesser capybara

Smelly is being really lazy about getting her photos together of the lesser capybaras she saw in Panama. In case you’ve forgotten about them (but how could you?) here is a link to our first post on lesser capys.

Because of Smelly’s lackadaisicalness, this [...]]]>

A lesser capybara

Smelly is being really lazy about getting her photos together of the lesser capybaras she saw in Panama. In case you’ve forgotten about them (but how could you?) here is a link to our first post on lesser capys.

Because of Smelly’s lackadaisicalness, this post is only going to be pointers to the capybara videos she took. There are three videos and they’re all pretty short. They were all taken at the Gamboa Rainforest Resort (more on that in a later post).

Click here to view the embedded video.

The first video shows a yellow caracara, that’s a kind of vulture, eating parasites off three capybaras that have come out of their wetland to graze. Caplin Rous always wanted a bird to land on his back and I have to admit these capys do seem to be enjoying it. Nevertheless, I think a better solution would be not to live in an environment with parasites in the first place! That way you don’t need a scary, killer bird to land on you and peck your eyes out. Okay, I guess that didn’t happen but you never know.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The second video is a quick clip of a capybara resting in the wetland with a not-quite-so-threatening-looking bird climbing all over him. Then the rest of the video shows three capybaras enjoying a nice meal of delicious looking grass. Melly says it rains a lot more down there than it does here in Texas (which is not at all!) so the grass is greener. Also, it is apparently still summer there! I want to live someplace where it is summer all year.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The third video shows one of the three from the last as she is being chased by a stupid human child. Poor thing! She is so pregnant she can hardly move. I bet she has 10 little baby capybaras to take care of even as I write this. I wish Melly had been down there to get photos of the new babies but that’s not the way luck would have it. Anyway that stupid kid scared her and made her stop eating and run back into her pond. I don’t think her bark sounds much like mine but you know how it is, you can’t really tell what you sound like unless you hear a recording and, so far, I have not allowed Melly to record my bark.

I will do my best to get Melly to write a blog post about the Panamanian capybaras later this week. I hope I don’t have to bite her.

The Plushes head to the San Diego Zoo

Owner’s Blog:

I was out in California last week to visit my sister and I couldn’t pass up the chance to visit the world famous San Diego Zoo. Last time I was there, about five years ago, they [...]]]>  

The Plushes head to the San Diego Zoo

Owner’s Blog:

I was out in California last week to visit my sister and I couldn’t pass up the chance to visit the world famous San Diego Zoo. Last time I was there, about five years ago, they did not have capybaras but I knew that they had a band of them now and I couldn’t wait to see them. Of course, I brought my two plush capybaras, Capycoppy (left) and Super Capy (right) with me. I also brought Double Decoy, the guinea pig in the middle. There’s nothing like going around taking photos of plush animals in a crowded area to make you feel crazy.

Double Decoy, Capycoppy and Super Capy at a gorilla statue

My sister, whose birthday we were celebrating, wanted to see the gorillas. We spent a ridiculous amount of time there but all you’re going to see of them is this photo of the plushes with a gorilla bust. Why waste time on other animals when there are capybaras to see?

The capybara exhibit

The zoo is enormous and it will eat up your whole day before you even get to the capybaras if you are not careful. They are at the Elephant Odyssey which is way in the back of the park. It is not too far from the drop off point for the “sky buckets.” The best thing to do is probably to get on the sky tram near the zoo entrance as soon as you arrive, go see the capybaras first and if there is any time left over, you can glance at the rest of the zoo.

Info on capybaras

Do not be expecting to learn a lot about the capybaras — or any of the zoo’s animals — by reading the posted placards. They are not very informative. They don’t even have distribution maps. The zoo’s website has a pretty good entry on capybaras that you can read here.

Four capys resting

The keeper I talked to, Steve according to his name tag, said there are approximately seven capybara in the exhibit including one seven month old male who was born there. That struck me as curious since one is not the typical number of kittens in a capybara clutter. I asked if there had been others and, if so, what happened to them. Steve was evasive on this saying he was not authorized to discuss that. In the photo above, you can see the young male who displays the short, red fur typical of young capybaras.

A capybara with guanacos

There is actually a bigger mystery. In November 2008 the zoo acquired nine adult capybaras. Buddy, the young male, was born there, which should leave them with ten. Why are there only seven? Maybe the above photo provides a hint. I watched this capybara and it was clearly afraid of the guanacos. It should be, Capyboppy, the second most famous capybara, was killed by a guanaco not long after he went to live at the LA Zoo.

Click here to view the embedded video.

San Diego Zoo Capybaras video

In the video you can see that the capybara is nervous when the guanacos come near.

A fat capy is a healthy capy?

Another health issue for the capys might be their weight. Steve said the largest of them weighs 139 lbs, which is within the documented weight range of 120-140 lbs for capybaras…just barely. But you can see in the image above that they are not carrying that weight as muscle. This capybara has a waddle!

Indoor dining

I’m going to blame the guanacos for the capybaras’ weight problem. It is natural for capybara to move around a lot while they are grazing during the morning and evening hours, or the afternoon or even night depending on their mood and where they live. But the capys at the San Diego Zoo have to go through this little door and eat inside. I am assuming this is because the guanacos will beat them up and steal their food.

Chewing on a stick

You may notice that there is nothing growing in the enclosure. I am blaming the guanacos for that too. In the wild, capybara crop the grass so it looks like a golf course. They do not eat it down to nothing. The capy above is forced to chew on a stick rather than satisfying her natural desire to graze to wear down her teeth. Grass is very tough so that wild capybaras keep their teeth nicely worn. Grazing also gets the capybara up and moving, constantly searching for the perfect grass, even when they are not really hungry.

Capybara and tapir

Perhaps I am being unfair to the guanacos; it is possible that the tapir is to blame for some of the austerity of the enclosure.

That brings up another point. Capybaras and tapirs do share the same environment in the wild but what are those guanacos doing in there anyway? Guanacos are cold weather animals as evidenced by their thick coats. They live in the mountains not in the marshes and forest streams. It seems like “South American” is a good enough tag and the zoo just throws the animals in together without even explaining that in the wild these animals would never encounter each other.

The greenery in this photo is outside the enclosure

So what is my opinion of the San Diego Zoo? I could spend days there.

But I am a little tired of the reverence most people give zoos and the haughty attitude of zoos themselves. I think they could provide better information to their visitors using more informative signage and not lumping disparate animals together. I think that rodents, who make up 1/4 of all mammal species, are seriously underrepresented. I think that the zoo environment is not all that safe or healthy for the animals.

For the capybaras, seeing a few fat animals with no reason to move about in a completely unnatural environment does not do them justice. How can people see or understand anything of their natural behaviors and social interactions? How can they appreciate their intelligence and affectionate natures? They cannot even hear their beautiful voices.

There is a place for zoos and I enjoy them as much as the next person, but Garibaldi Rous is a better ambassador for capybaras than capybaras in a zoo.

Wild Venezuela: The Capybara case image

Melly is always looking for more information about capybaras, and who can blame her? The real question is, why isn’t there more available? Some things are just too difficult to understand. At any rate, she did find this video, Wild Venezuela: The Capybara [...]]]> Video Review

Wild Venezuela: The Capybara case image

Melly is always looking for more information about capybaras, and who can blame her? The real question is, why isn’t there more available? Some things are just too difficult to understand. At any rate, she did find this video, Wild Venezuela: The Capybara on amazon.com and was too excited not to buy it.

I was skeptical when I saw the case. Not only is that not a capybara but it is one of our arch enemies! Crocodiles are known capybara killers so what’s up with that?

We loaded it up and started watching.

Scene from Wild Venezuela: The Capybara

I was pretty happy with the beautiful capybara images, like the one above. Look at all those capys! I am sure that many of us would scare me to death! And I don’t think I would be one of the dominant males described in the video. I probably wouldn’t be one of the subordinate males either. I’d probably be one that got run off and had to live all alone.

Melly had some problems with the video. We’re going to go over those quickly and not dwell on them.

• Monkeys probably came from Africa and not from North America as the video says.
• Rabbits are not rodents although the video tends to indicate that they are. This is a common misconception that Melly and I both wish they wouldn’t propagate
• Cavys did not come from North America but rather from Africa and are related to African porcupines.
• Giant rodents are not restricted to South America. The North American beaver is the 2nd largest rodent followed by African porcupines.
• Correct spelling of the scientific name for capybars is Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris.
• Our fur does not grow darker with age, actually gets longer and lighter in color.
• I resent them saying our eyes and nasal orifices are “protruding!” As an adaptation to aquatic life, one has to consider that closely related non-aquatic species such as guinea pigs have similar placement.

Mostly the video was pretty good and Melly, Rick and I all enjoyed watching the capybaras enjoying their wild habitat. There are a few scenes that might need adult consideration before showing to children. Specifically, there are several examples of capybara matings and one scene where a hawk is eating the eye out of a dead capybara. Ewe! I had to turn away for that last one.

Scene from Wild Venezuela: The Capybara

It is hard to argue with all the cute baby capybaras which really steal the show.

Most of the video was shot in the Apure state in central Venezuela and a lot seems to have been taken at Hato El Frio, where Melly saw them before she got Caplin Rous. The video is from 2002, which is a long, long time ago. Sadly, the state of wild capybaras in Venezuela has probably deteriorated since then.

I recommend this video on the basis of its beautiful capybara images and the fact that it doesn’t have any competition.

Baby capy at Howletts Wild Animal Park (photo from Zoo Borns)

Howletts Wild Animal Park is now home to a clutter of baby capybara! Check out the adorable photos on Zoo Borns. Howletts is near Canterbury, England so if you are in that part of the world, get over and see [...]]]>

Baby capy at Howletts Wild Animal Park (photo from Zoo Borns)

Howletts Wild Animal Park is now home to a clutter of baby capybara! Check out the adorable photos on Zoo Borns. Howletts is near Canterbury, England so if you are in that part of the world, get over and see them. And send me some photos!

Lesser Capybara at Gamboa, Panama (photo by Jose Soto)

The amazing photo above is of the elusive lesser capybara. The lesser capybara, Hydrochoerus isthmius, is a second species of capybara found only in Panama and Colombia. And guess what? We are going to go see them!

You might remember my previous [...]]]> Owner’s blog:

Lesser Capybara at Gamboa, Panama (photo by Jose Soto)

The amazing photo above is of the elusive lesser capybara. The lesser capybara, Hydrochoerus isthmius, is a second species of capybara found only in Panama and Colombia. And guess what? We are going to go see them!

You might remember my previous blog post about the Elusive Lesser Capybara. That got me thinking. Here was a place, the Gamboa Rainforest Resort, where we can be virtually assured of seeing wild lesser capybara. And we don’t even need to leave the resort to do it! Sign me up for that! So I began emailing Jose Soto at the resort and asking about the probability of seeing capybara and he sent me these great photos.

Band of wild lesser capybara at Gamboa (photo by Jose Soto)

You can see the lesser capybara look a lot like the common capybara. They do seem to be significantly darker and missing the red in their fur. Their faces look more blunt and maybe a little bit bigger and their fur looks shorter. I cannot wait to find out if that is true by seeing them in person! Jose, who is the activity director, said he would set up some special tours for us so that we can see even more capybara.

Lesser capybara with cattle egret (photo by Jose Soto)

Stacy Winnick (who owns Dobby (or Dobbye) Winnick, Caplin Rous’ little brother), will be going to. So will popular capybara-related personalities Coral and Sheldon. Stacy and I might give a talk on what it is like to keep a capybara as a pet, depending on if anyone is interested.

So the point is, if you want to see capybara in the wild, why not meet up with us in Panama this December? We are going to be at the resort from December 26th through January 2nd.  Let me know if you decide to come.

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 [...]]]> 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 [...]]]>

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 [...]]]>  

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 crocodile, 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.)