Four capybara pups born in Mandai on Capybara Appreciation Day
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The four capybara pups can be seen wandering around and eating grass in an enclosure with their mother.
PHOTO: SCREENGRAB FROM MANDAI WILDLIFE RESERVE/FACEBOOK
SINGAPORE – Visitors to Mandai’s River Wonders will be greeted by four new capybara pups.
Luna, one of 12 other capybaras at the wildlife park, gave birth to the pups on July 10, which is also Capybara Appreciation Day, Mandai Wildlife Reserve said in social media posts on July 30.
In an attached video, the pups can be seen wandering around and eating grass in an enclosure with their mother.
The public can visit the pups at Amazonia Encounters in River Wonders.
The capybara is native to South America, and is the world’s largest living rodent. It is a semi-aquatic mammal that is related to guinea pigs and, more distantly, to chinchillas and the agouti, according to the National Geographic website.
Capybara pups are born precocial, which means they have a thick coat of fur at birth – unlike many animals that are born with little or no fur.
Luna had given birth to two other pups in January, in what was the first capybara birth at Mandai in a decade. One of the pups, named Ollie, celebrated its 100-day milestone in April.
However, Ollie’s sibling did not survive the critical early weeks and died about three weeks after its birth, on Jan 27, according to a Mandai statement in March.
