Submitted by: Joel Hendon(4,035) Joel Hendon Log in to become a member of Joel Hendon's Fan Club!
It seems somewhat strange that so many folks will climb the wall at the sight of a tiny mouse or even more so, a field or gutter rat. But a 183 pound cousin of theirs will cause an entire city to fall in love with her. Not really a rat but rather, one of the world’s largest rodents, capybaras (
kăp'ə-bär'ə). These weird, but apparently harmless, animals are native to the floodplains and humid forests of South America. They are called “water hogs” by some but only because they love to swim and reside near water. And, they are slightly similar to hogs in size and body build. Although hogs grow much larger than they. Their average full grown weight is said to be about 100 pounds, there is a true story of one which reached 183 pounds in a lagoon inside Rio De Janeiro. The entire city of over 6 million fell in love with her. You can read this account at: http://www.rebsig.com/capybara/riocapy.htm
These interesting animals have a slightly similar appearance to that of a beaver whose tail was completely severed. They have no tails, they are large, semi aquatic creatures who can stay submerged for several minutes. The first of these strange animals that my wife and I encountered was at the Birmingham, Alabama Zoo. They have a small pond there which contains other creatures (I don’t remember what else due to being absorbed with the curious capybaras), but these animals, when I first noticed them were all standing around the edge of the water with their heads submerged!
I asked my wife what on earth these creatures were and she had no clue either. And after standing there what seemed to be 10 minutes, one would bring up his head and mosey around a bit and submerge it again. Others did the same way but none ever gave any indication of gasping for breath after the extended period with their nostrils under water. I still have no idea why they were doing this. They were motionless while their heads were submerged so I could not tell that they were eating anything.
Wikipedia tells us that there were, at one time, much larger capybaras than our present day strain…as much as eight times their present size. Larger than a Grizzly bear. Can you imagine what that would do for the ladies if they saw one of those scooting across the floor? We are also told that the females of our current day capybaras grows heavier than the males. They are vegetarians, eating grass and aquatic vegetation. You may put “capybara” in Google’s search engine and you can find a lot of information on this peculiar animal. Here is a photo from a South African zoo where you are permitted to go in and pet the capybara.
Author Biography:
Joel Hendon was born September 20, 1930 near Gadsden Alabama. He attended public schools in Cherokee County, Alabama and after serving a tour of duty in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, attended Jacksonville State University, Jacksonville, Alabama majoring in Business Administration. He became a Christian in 1948, and although he followed secular work as a career and retired from Allied Signal Aerospace in 1997, he is an avid student of the Holy Bible and related works as well as biblical history. He produces a bi-weekly publication, The Household of Faith Ezine which is free for the asking. Archives are accessible at: http://www.piedmontcoc.org/archives.html He is also the author of Final Stronghold, published in 2003, available from Amazon.
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