Capybars - Classic or Dud

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They're giant hamsters the size of large dogs. They live in South America and are officially classed as fish by the Catholic Church (so people can eat them on fast days). I want one as a pet.

― DV, Tuesday, 4 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Capybaras.

Absolute classic. Isabel's favourite animal ever. They're more like guinea pigs than hampsters though. There are a couple at the wildlife reserve near me - we go there fairly regularly and they're the high point. I couldn't explain exactly why they're so great, they're just one of those placid creatures that makes you feel everything is right with the world that something so pointless but likeable can exist.

― Tom, Tuesday, 4 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I saw them in the Boston Zoo. They are mutants. Anacondas savor them

― Mike Hanle y, Tuesday, 4 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Classic, because they're monstrously big rodents. There's something about the idea of great big furry gnawy creatures that just makes me happy. Wombats have the same cheering effect on me.

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Tuesday, 4 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Would you still be happy if there were twenty of the things piled on your back, teeth bared and claws digging?

― Dan Perry, Tuesday, 4 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Are they anything like Chinchillas?

― DG, Tuesday, 4 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Can't anyone use Google anymore?

The description of the perpetual Capybara machine reminds me oddly of And The Native Hipsters' "There Goes Concorde Again"

― Tom, Tuesday, 4 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Awww! I are wanting my own capybara now.

― DG, Tuesday, 4 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

They're evil. Pure, furry evil. Don't trust 'em, don't turn your back on 'em.
THEY'RE EVIL I TELLS YA!!

― DavidM, Tuesday, 4 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Aww, but they is so cute and fluffy. How can they be evil?

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Tuesday, 4 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

But who is going to spring for the fucking *massive* hampster wheel?

― Mitch Lastnamewithheld, Tuesday, 4 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

They're wild beasts, they don't need shite like wheels. The only reason hampsters need wheels is because they've all been driven mad by being put in hampster cages. Capybaras make their own entertainment with a hoop and a stick.

― Tom, Tuesday, 4 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Can you ride them?

― Ally, Tuesday, 4 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Hmm, ISTR something about small dogs riding capybara in some film or other.

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Tuesday, 4 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'd say you could maybe ride a capybara. They're pretty big. Although it would be more like sitting on top of something while it struggled along.

They might not like you riding them, though, and for all their cute guinea piggish charm I wouldn't like to get on their bad side.

― DV, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

capybaras are the size of sheep but the expression on their face is much more proud. They are wonderful and after years of watching them I was able to lure one over to stroke it recetly and it was brilliant.They mainly live in Venezuela and maybe the reason they are classified as fish is that when it floods they are happy to swim and they have webbed feet. The babies are the size of full grown guinea pigs and they have to make deadly swims across rivers avoiding caymen. I would relly love to have a capybara but I would need a field so that neighbours did not fuss and a pond for the the capys plus

― Isabel Smith, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Plus (I pressed submit by mistake) giant salads for them each day.

Come to club Sussed next time for some giant guinea pig DJ action.

― Isabel Smith, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

sadly I probably live in the wrong country.

I feel that Capybaras are my new special friends since I saw them in the BRILLIANT Fota island Wildlife park just outside Cork.

― DV, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Are we going to get that Cork vs Dublin update?

And yes DJ Capybara will be playing Sussed on the 20th. Hooray!

― Tom, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

If my memory serves me correctly there is a small colony in the wild somewhere in Lincolnshire/Norfolk, the offspring of some escapees from either a fur farm or a wildlife sanctuary. There was a feature once on Look North, probably presented by Harry Gratian.

― cabbage, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Are you sure you're not thinking of coypu?

― Emma, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

we should lobby for a capybara picture to replace the goat picture on the lusenet index page.

― rener, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Emma you're right, I have my capybara's and my coypu's mixed up.

― cabbage, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Aren't there also wallabies living wild "somewhere in Britain" having escaped from somewhere?

― DV, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

There are definitely panthers living wild. There was a funny programme where Emmerdale farm type guys described seeing a black panther eat their sheep.

― Ronan, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The wallabies are in Derbyshire, in the Peak District to be precise. I remember Blue Peter doing a report on them and Simon Groome was running around the peaks looking for them. I think they escaped from Riber Castle zoo near Matlock though once again, I could be wrong. I never saw one up there though, despite the numerous times I persuaded my parents to drive me out to look for them.

Simon Groome now divides his time between his farm in Dethick and doing a show on BBC Radio Sheffield, as my Mum was telling me over the weekend.

― cabbage, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Wallabies used to escape and go feral from Whipsnade zoo too, I remember once on a birthday trip to the zoo my friends found a dead one next to the big chalk lion by the zoo.

― Emma, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

There used to be wild wallabies in the woods next to my grandad's farm in the peak district. I only saw one once. It was hopping across the road and it looked like a very small kangaroo.

Most of these exotic feral animals originated from the private menageries which were regulated in the early 60's. Instead of complying with the regulations many of the owners just set the animals free.

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I've heard that the idea that there are loads of big cats running wild in these islands is actually a myth. For all that some might have been set free in the '60s or '70s they wouldn't have been able to sustain a population since then.

That's what THEY want you to believe.

― DV, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

http://www.rebsig.com/capybara/

toe-curlingly cute photos and a perpetual capybara machine!

― rener, Thursday, 6 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Sorry, forgot my tags - click here for the capybara page

― rener, Thursday, 6 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I dunno, the programme had pretty good footage of cats and some eye witness accounts. But if they're not cats then...........................................what are they?

― Ronan, Thursday, 6 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I thought the current thinking was that they were usually normal cats that folks saw as bigger than they actually are owing to some freaky optical processing fuck ups. Having said that there is a freakily big (ie 4 foot long) type of wild/domestic cat that lives in the highlands.

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Thursday, 6 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

four weeks pass...

I've just got some photos back from when I was in Fota Island, including one of a capybara standing beside a park bench.

I'd forgotten how weird they look. They're just too big!

― DV, Thursday, 4 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Rener - that page is sick:

ANOTHER UPDATE:
We still don't have pictures of people eating capybaras, but there's a stunning photo of capybara-lassoing in the April 1998 issue of National Geographic (p22-23).

― Nick, Thursday, 4 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

nick: ugh, didn't see that. naturally, i condone neither eating nor lassooing capybaras.

there's a capybara.com as well, but i haven't checked it out yet.

― rener, Saturday, 6 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

aaare these related to the chupacabra?

― Geoff, Saturday, 6 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two years pass...

I've just spent half an hour looking at pictures of capybara. They are so cute!! This thread needs more pictures.

http://www.rainforestlive.org.uk/media/Images/CAPYBARA2pz.jpg

― Cathy (Cathy), Thursday, 2 September 2004 18:55 (twenty-one years ago)

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