World’s largest rodent found in Thousand Oaks

World’s largest rodent
found in Thousand Oaks

LISA ADAMS/The Acorn A RARE FIND-Agoura Hills Animal Control Sgt. Denise Rosen pets a capybara, the largest rodent in the world. This one is about 30 pounds and was found swimming in a pond in the backyard of a Thousand Oaks resident. Agoura Animal Shelter has found someone who can legally adopt him.

Rats, it almost got away.

A T.O. resident living on El Monte Drive recently caught a 30-pound capybara on his property, a rare animal in these parts.

Dubbed the world’s biggest rodent, the capybara (pronounced cappy-bar-ah) lives primarily in Central and South America and probably came to Southern California illegally, according to officials from the Agoura Animal Shelter.

Capybaras are slightly clumsy on land, but are excellent swimmers and divers.

"I have a home office and I was just sitting at my desk talking on the phone, and it went walking by the door," said Rob Orth, a T.O. homeowner. "My house looks like Gilligan’s Island, it’s real tropical … Maybe it heard the sounds of the water and the pond since they’re aquatic."

Orth recognized the animal from a program he saw once on the Discovery Channel.

The adult capybara, which looks like a cross between a beaver and guinea pig, can be as big as a dog and weigh up to 160 pounds. The one on Orth’s property was a juvenile about the size of large raccoon, only taller.

"I talked to the animal control people and they thought maybe it was a female, but nobody wanted to wrestle it and find out," Orth said.

Orth caught the capybara and put it into a Dumpster until rescuers could arrive, but the animal jumped out and ran to Orth’s pond where he snared it a second time. Animal control officers arrived a short while later.

"It’s awful tame, so I’m assuming that somebody probably smuggled it here as a pet and they’re not coming forward because it’s illegal for them to have," said Gail Miley, the animal shelter director.

"[Miley] told me if I see a sign that says ‘Lost, giant rat,’ please let me know," Orth said with a laugh.

The capybara has course brown hair, flecked with yellow and gray, and only a rudimentary tail. Their feet are partially webbed.

Capybara’s scientific name, Hydrochoerus, means "water pig."

At first, nobody wanted to provide a home for the world’s largest rodent.

"We called the Santa Barbara Zoo, I called the Moorpark teaching college and the L.A. Zoo and also one in Orange County, and they weren’t interested," said Denis Rosen, the animal control officer who made the rescue.

"It didn’t try to bite," Rosen said. "It’s more timid, more shy than anything. But I’m sure it would try to bite if you touched it … Big long teeth."

The frightened animal neither hissed nor snarled when he caught it with his pool net, Orth said.

Rosen finally gave the capybara to a Thousand Oaks resident who has a license for exotic pets. Rosen said the shelter gave the same resident a nutria, another South American rodent that was found several years ago running free on the steps of the Thousand Oaks Civic Center.

Capybaras can live up to 10 years in the wild. They survive on a diet of water plants, grass and tree bark. The puma, jaguar, ocelot and eagle are their enemies.

The capybara can be found in the Amazon rainforest, Panama and parts of the Andes Mountains, Columbia, Uruguay and Argentina. It always lives in dense forests and around lakes, streams and marshes.