The Case of the Dead Capybara (COD update)

 Just in case no one reading this knows what a capybara is here is a brief Wikipedia summary:

"The capybara or greater capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) is a giant cavy rodent native to South America. It is the largest living rodent^] and a member of the genus Hydrochoerus. The only other extant member is the lesser capybara (Hydrochoerus isthmius). Its close relatives include guinea pigs and rock cavies, and it is more distantly related to the agouti, the chinchilla, and the nutria. The capybara inhabits savannas and dense forests, and lives near bodies of water. It is a highly social species and can be found in groups as large as 100 individuals, but usually live in groups of 10–20 individuals. "

Now we know that the other large South American rodent, the coypu, has been 'wiped out' in the UK. There is an official DEFRA statement to that effect.  So, when Gavin Spittlehouse  posted to a Bristol wildlife group that he had found a dead coypu/capybara in woods near to Bath the main responses were that he ought to contact the local authority to have it removed.  I do wonder at times that we find anything out as there is no natural history interest in wildlife groups more social interests and anything like this should be reported to me...in fact one person did so there is hope.

The photographs are quite clear.

photo Gavin Spittlehouse

photo Gavin Spittlehouse

photo Gavin Spittlehouse

It can be seen that this is a capybara and a young one at that. This raised a lot of questions as if there is a youngster there has to be parents and checking maps there is plenty of water (rivers and ponds in the area of the find.  Gavin collected the carcass and took it home with him while I spent quite some time trying to find someone who could collect it from him and store it in a cool place until checks were made.   

Luckily, Zoe Webber, part of the Bristol Fox Deaths Project, was able to collect and find storage.  In the meantime I contacted the pathologist who carries out our fox post mortems and asked whether he might be interested in a capybara to PM. He was more than happy to. This would give us a lot of information about the condition of any capybara out in the UK countryside.   

Zoe then told me that Gavin had asked in the locality of the find to see whether the capybara belonged to anyone. This was news for me and it had me worried for reasons I will go into further on.  I then heard from Zoe that the owners had contacted Gavin.  The owners own a farm but keep it as a small zoo and the capybara had slipped past them at some point and it had been scared by a rhea and run off.

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The rheas are large, flightless birds with grey-brown plumage, long legs and long necks, similar to an ostrich. Large males of R. americana can reach 170 cm (67 in) and there are at least three locations -one in Hertfordshire- where rheas are living wild and have been mistaken for ostriches.  

This raised a lot of questions and Zoe managed to answer them easily after talking to the owners who were both above boards and my guess is that the capybara was kept as a petting zoo animal which is common in the UK.  This is where the problems started.  

If a captive escapee then the post mortem could not be justified. It was a pet not wild so that probably kicked down any excitement the pathologist had> However, Zoe arranged for someone else to carry out a post mortem after which the animal would be respectfully dealt with.

So a good breakthrough on exotics turned into a disappointment but with capybara, skunks, porcupines, meercats and other exotics being bred in the UK for the exotic pet trade (some of it rather shady) it is likely another animal will turn up as road-kill at some point or be shot by a farmer or 'sportsmen' in future.  To date we have been unlucky in that the bodies of road-kill large cats as well as wolverine (seen clearly by very reliable observers) have been on busy motorways where there is no space to pull in and retrieve them and there is a high risk to the observer from traffic (stopping might also have caused an accident).  

One day, however....

A post mortem has been carried out:

It died 2-3 days after escape, didn't eat anything in that time so its digestive system wasn't great, basically he ran till his heart exploded Lungs were full of arterial blood So cause of death stress/fear induced heart attack"