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Class is in session at the Zoo! Our younger animals are learning crucial husbandry behaviors from their dedicated animal care teams to participate in their medical care voluntarily. Our youngest elephants, Winnie and Teddy, started formal training at three months old, while our capybara pups are learning to stand-up behaviors through target training. You can spot this training during your next Zoo visit! Read more: bit.ly/3PEvnND
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Source Description
Class is in session at the Zoo! Our younger animals are learning crucial husbandry behaviors from their dedicated animal care teams to participate in their medical care voluntarily. Our youngest elephants, Winnie and Teddy, started formal training at three months old, while our capybara pups are learning to stand-up behaviors through target training. You can spot this training during your next Zoo visit! Read more: bit.ly/3PEvnND
Capybaras: The World’s Largest Rodent
Capybaras (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) are the world’s largest rodents, and they are native to South America. Capybaras are herbivores that feed on grasses, aquatic plants, fruits, and tree bark. These semi-aquatic animals are pig-like and can grow up to 2 feet tall at the shoulder. They have short legs, webbed feet, and a thick coat of fur that helps them stay warm in cold water.
Capybaras live in groups of up to 20 individuals near bodies of water, such as rivers, lakes, swamps, marshes, and flooded savannas. They use their webbed feet to swim quickly through the water to escape predators like jaguars or caimans. During the day, they rest in caves or wallows that they dig out of mud banks. At night they come out to graze on grasses and other vegetation.
Capybaras are social animals that communicate with each other using vocalizations like barks, grunts, squeaks, and whistles. They also share using body language such as head bobbing or tail wagging. When threatened by a predator, they will alert other capybaras with a loud bark before fleeing into the water.
Capybaras reproduce during the rainy season when food is plentiful. Females give birth to litters of four to eight young after a gestation period of 130 days. The young are weaned at three months old but remain with their mother until they reach sexual maturity at one year old.
In recent years there has been an increase in demand for capybara meat and hides due to their popularity as exotic pets in some countries worldwide. This has led to overhunting of these animals which has caused their population numbers to decline significantly in some areas where they were once abundant.
Despite this decline in population numbers, capybaras remain an important part of many ecosystems throughout South America., They help maintain healthy wetland habitats by grazing on aquatic plants that keep them from becoming overgrown with weeds or algae blooms that can choke out other species living there.
Capybaras are fascinating creatures that play an important role in maintaining healthy ecosystems throughout South America despite threats from overhunting for their meat and hides and habitat destruction due to human development activities such as deforestation or draining wetlands for agricultural purposes or urbanization projects.
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capybara
- https://www.nationalgeographic
