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Richard Collins: Capybara are in the 'rodents we love' category
Capybaras are becoming the Houdinis of the zoo world. They staged a series of daring jail-breaks recently. Resembling overweight Airedale dogs with barrel-shaped heads and back legs longer than front ones, these cartoon-like rodents might seem to be unlikely escapees.
On April 3 last, Bazong ('Big Shot' in Chinese) made a hole in a fence at Yangzhou Zoo and, with two companions, escaped into the wild. According to press reports, one of the renegades was found relaxing in a lake. Another was trapped in a rubbish bin. However, the third fugitive, a female named Doubait, couldn't be found. It took two months to track and lure her into a humane trap.
Doubao's keepers had thought that, as a South American rodent accustomed to being pampered and fed in captivity, she wouldn't survive for long in the alien Chinese environment. To everyone's surprise, however, she hadn't lost weight while on the run on — the contrary, she was heavier than she had been prior to her flight, and her coat had remained healthy.
Another great escape took place last September, this time closer to home. Cinnamon, a female at Hoo Zoo in Telford, hid in long grass near the gate of her enclosure. "She seemed to know what we were going to do," a keeper told the BBC. When the gate was opened to allow mowing equipment to enter, she slipped around the side of the tractor and escaped into woodland. Despite extensive searching, zoo staff couldn't find her. They called in a pilot who used a drone-mounted heat-sensing device to locate her.
In 2016, two capybaras escaped from Toronto's High Park Zoo and went on the run, Bonnie and Clyde style. One eluded capture for 19 days.
Capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) in the Pantanal wetland, Brazil, South America
Nor is such behaviour new among capybaras... escapees have been living wild in Florida marshlands where their ancestors once roamed.
Rodents are either loved or hated, there is no middle ground where they are concerned. Rats inspire loathing everywhere, apart from at the Karni Mata Temple in Rajastan, where they may join you for lunch, eating off your plate. Mice are unwelcome house guests; people have an irrational fear of them.
Squirrels, however, are loved. Their bushy tails, endearing ways and the widespread, but false, belief that they spend the winter in cosy Christmassy hibernation, tugs at the heart-strings. Guinea pigs and gerbils make lovable pets. Capybaras, the world's largest rodents, are also on the side of the angels. They have become popular zoo dwellers. Visitors to Fota Wildlife Park will know them. They can be kept as pets, although meeting the needs of these semi-aquatic creatures is challenging. Unable to synthesise Vitamin C they, like the mariners of old they are prone gum disease and scurvy.
According to the linguists, 'capybara' means 'the one who eats slender leaves' in the Tupi language of Brazil. Like beavers, these river-dwellers are herbivores. They will eat their own droppings to supplement their gut bacteria.
Encountering them in the Amazon rain-forest many years ago, they seemed inquisitive, popping their heads up to observe us as we passed slowly by in a canoe. Such trusting behaviour seemed odd because capybaras were hunted as bush-meat by the local tribes-people. I could have eaten capybara meat in the remote jungle village where I lodged.
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