The world's chillest, most laid back rodent? These 8 photos reveal why capybaras are the most easy-going animals alive
The world's chillest, most laid back rodent? These 8 photos reveal why capybaras are the most easy-going animals alive
From family life to feathered friends, see capybaras at their most companionable
A cattle tyrant perching on a capybara. It's likely the bird will be looking for insects, which will have been caught on the rodent as it moves through the vegetation (credit: Getty Images)
If you weren’t aware of capybaras before, the thrilling story of the capybara named Cinnamon who escaped the zoo in 2024 will have inevitably caught your eye. She made her hasty getaway from Hoo Zoo in Telford when the gates to her enclosure were left open for grass cutting – and her story captured the public’s hearts and minds. People who had never heard of a capybara were suddenly finding themselves deep down a Wikipedia hole – and some of them ended up here… welcome!
Capybaras are the largest rodents in the world and spend a great deal of time in water. But they’re not necessarily always cute: they also eat their own faeces.
But mostly, they’re a charming delight, which we’ve captured here in this adorable photo gallery of everyone’s favourite rodent: the capybara.
A capybara with its baby. Female capybaras are fertile all year round, but there is usually a peak of births around the end of the wet season (credit: Getty Images)Adult female capybara with its litter of four pups in El Palmar National Park, Entre Rios, Argentina. Capybaras have the longest gestation period of all rodents – five months. They then have an average of four pups per litter (credit: Getty Images)A capybara male and female swimming with pups in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Capybaras are semi-aquatic, and are well adapted for life in the water, with partially webbed feet. They can stay underwater for up to five minutes (credit: Getty Images)Capybara mother with cubs on the river bank at Rio Cuiaba, Brazil. Capybaras use water as a shelter from the heat – and as a place to escape from land predators (credit: Getty Images)Capybaras are not only social with others of their kind – they're also highly accepting of other species. It's common to see capybaras with birds perching on their backs. In many instances, the birds are eating ticks and other parasites off the capybara's skin (credit: Getty Images)A capybara displays its teeth during a yawn in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Their teeth are typical of a rodent, with two large incisors that grow continuously (credit: Getty Images)A cattle tyrant perching on a capybara. It's likely the bird will be looking for insects, which will have been caught on the rodent as it moves through the vegetation (credit: Getty Images)Capybaras enter the water to mate (with a bird going along for the ride), Mato Grosso, Pantanal, Brazil. Capybaras mate exclusively in water. As semi-aquatic rodents, they even sleep in the water with their nose in the air (credit: Getty Images)
