Abilene Zoo announces arrival of world's largest rodent day after reopening

ABILENE, Texas — The day after reopening from the COVID-19 closure, the Abilene Zoo announced the arrival of the "world's largest rodent ."

Four of them, actually.

Mario, Daisy, Rosalina, and Peach are capybaras.

Don't be fooled by their small stature as they are only six-months-old.

When full grown, they will be between 70-150 lbs. and up to 4' 1/2" tall when standing on their hind legs.

“We are thrilled to welcome the world’s largest rodents to the Abilene Zoo,” said Zoo Curator Denise Ibarra, “The pups are around six-months-old and are transitioning well to the new exhibit.”

Guests can view the one male and three female capybaras in their exhibit in the South America area which they share with two Southern Screamer birds.

The zoo said capybaras communicate with each other using yelps, barks, huffs, and purrs.

In the wild, they eat aquatic plants, fruits, and tree bark.

Though they may look like tailless beavers, capybaras are most closely related to guinea pigs.

The zoo said webbed and duck-like feet make them excellent swimmers, and they can stay submerged in water for up to five minutes.

The zoo reopened Monday with safety precautions in place.

Employees are wearing masks, some paths are now one-way and visitors urged to practice social distancing.

They had 726 visitors on their first day back open.

"We also saw a lot of donations -- over $230 in donations that went to various things such as feeding the animals and adopting some of the animals," said Jennifer Pacheco, the marketing coordinator for the Abilene Zoo. "So, we've seen a lot of support and a lot of foot traffic. We're just excited to be open and see the community again."

They had about 100 less visitors Tuesday compared the same day last year. They said the triple digit heat mostly likely kept many people indoors.