It's not unusual to have a pet rodent, but Melanie Typaldos' pet Caplin Rous is no ordinary rodent. See, Caplin is a Capybara, the world's largest rodent:
The second part of his name, which Typaldos pronounces like "rose," stands for "Rodent of Unusual Size" (a reference to the movie "The Princess Bride"). He's also a rodent of unusual abilities. He can walk on a leash and even do some tricks, but Typaldos says it's important not to exaggerate any similarity to a dog doing tricks.
"Dogs have thousands of years of being trained to be subservient to people," she says. "A capybara will not do a trick just to make me happy. The quality of the trick is very dependent on the quality of the treat."
Link | More at Caplin's blog Capybara Madness
Gee, that animal looks thrilled.
But that's how all pets start so *shrugs*
The thing is obviously very loved and being taken care of. Who cares if she dresses it up. I'm sure it could care less so long as it gets treats.
I think LisaL has the right idea w/ her comments. :)
BTW, I've never met Melanie or Caplin in person, but I know them from Facebook. I'm commenting simply because I feel sad when folks like you criticize &/or make fun of situations you don't have enough information about.
Peace :)
Domestication starts somewhere. You have to try it before you find out which animals lend themselves to it. And it's not unnatural. Domestication can be very beneficial evolutionarily to animals.
That said, I have no idea whether capybara's make good pets.
As the human population grows and animals have no place to live, and are indiscriminately eaten, domestication may be the only way many animals like this capybara can avoid extinction.
Good to see it only took 4 post to get to a Tick reference.
If you would watch the videos you would see how wonderful he is treated and loved.
In Peru, the Capybara is in danger of extinction because they are a delicacy to eat.
Leave them alone!