Capybaras

I apologise to anyone who has seen this more than once, but I absolutely have to share what I think is an awfully cute animal – the capybara.

(picture from here)

Capybaras are native to South America and are the largest living rodents in the world. They’re also very popular in Japan - a cartoon version of it can be found adorning stationery while a stuffed animal version fills up UFO machines.

(pictures from here and here)

It was also in Japan – perhaps only in Japan – where the boy got me my adorable Baby Capybara (yes, I call a spade a spade, although my colleague is meant to help think of a name):

At the hands of my cheeky colleagues, Baby Capybara was turned into a My Little Pony, or perhaps a punk rocker mohawk wannabe. He still looks incredibly adorable though, so I’m leaving the tassels on (from a keychain) for the time being.

I’d tweeted his transformation, and it was retweeted by GaribaldiRous who has a blog where you can find tonnes and tonnes of capybara photos. Note that the blog comes with a cuteness overload warning!

For more capybara cuteness, check out this Japanese video which I’d first seen on Japan Probe: