Hippo's Wild World of Animals - Random Animal Facts

Don't go bothering me for playing along with a Calvin and Hobbes quote. I know all about avians and hemipterans.

OH, THEY'RE UGLY ARE THEY?  

Right, well why don't you tell that to this little angel, then.  He didn't hear you the first time.

And that the mustard seed is the smallest seed in the world.

The AV Club

Also: anyone who doesn't like bats generally and fruit bats especially is probably the sort of person who eats babies.

I didn't but I do now, always down for cute animals to give facts about.

Well then how about another! 

So the prairie dog is your spirit animal, Dellarigg? I see..

One Saturday night, I was walking downtown after bars had closed and came across a group of about 20 absolutely wasted people standing around in a circle, very quiet and intently looking down at something. When I looked into their circle I saw a tiny little bat, just minding his own business. It's rare to see a drunk mob in silent awe of something, but that's just the magic of bats.

Look, who's giving the report? YOU chowderheads... or ME?!

You just wanted to say murmuration, didn't you? Can't blame you, it's an awesome word. They'll be on the subs bench, once I'm done with the first 14 I'll be doing season two essentially with 14 others which'll include some of the currently benched species.

For this week, we're going for the capybara, the largest rodent on earth!

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Capybara, water pig, grass pig, giant hamster thing, whichever name you might want to call them you may be fascinated by these rodents of unusual size.


Another South American species, the capybara are the largest species in the Rodentia order standing at 1.5 feet tall. They are closely related to the far smaller guinea pig or cavy.

The capybara are semi-aquatic herbivorous animals, generally capable of running as fast as a horse and mostly live on grasses and bark. They have a lifespan of around 10 years in captivity, often far less in the wild as they are prey for various animals.

They're social animals, often living in groups of 20 capy and are very close in behaviour with an upcoming semi-aquatic mammal, the hippopotamus. They both can stay underwater for around five minutes, like mud wallowing and have a small reputation for being lazy though you're not likely to be gored by a capybara chasing after you.

You might be looking at a capybara and thinking "kinda looks like a beaver". Well, they're both rodents though not related but consider the nutria instead which does look like a beaver/capybara hybrid with bright orange teeth. Nutria is also Spanish for otter so never say I don't teach you new things about animals I've already covered.

To complete things here are the cute pics you probably ignored the text to see.

Those look like gnarled-root feet.

I'm surprised to learn how fast they can run.  

Capybaras love puppies!