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).
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JKtju_2QRQ&context=C3196c06ADOEgsToPDskJKjasIEoMPVzvsV3N5veWH[/youtube]
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.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lJEYs98zvM&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]
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.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LqTuOzu-iA&context=C31a280cADOEgsToPDskIQv8j0QBXPQmOlWN512fIb[/youtube]
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.