We recently received a request from a well-meaning fan who had seen a capybara they felt needed to be rescued. It was a sad case, but we can’t rescue an animal that belongs to someone else. The inspiration for the request was our previous rescue capybara. It was a ten year old male that had lived at a petting zoo for years. It was now for sale at a price usually reserved for baby capybaras, not for an old male. We suspected that no one would ever buy him, and became concerned for his welfare. Capybaras don’t live much longer than ten years, so we acted quickly to rescue him.

We never knew his name and he became Pandabara. He was thin but healthy, shy but not aggressive, and had no morrillo, the masculine scent gland on top of the nose. We immediately suspected he was a she. We will never know her age, but eventually we learned she was, as we suspected, a female.

She had a good appetite, eating fruit and vegetables without a fuss. Capybaras can be persnickety about food, but Pandabara gratefully devoured everything put in front of her. She toughed it out through a frigid Texas winter, never interested in coming into the house. We suspect she had never been indoors, so her straw bale hut was outfitted with a heated kennel pad, which she shared with her tortoise friend.

The slender capybara grew plump. Her stiff legs loosened up and she acquired the gait of a younger capybara. Our ten year old male now looked like an eight year old female.

She grew interested in the pond and pools and spent her days grazing and relaxing among the shrubs under the trees in her shady yard.

When I visited Texas in fall of 2023, she was still shy, but confident enough to eat corn from my hand. Close up, I could see the cataracts that Melanie had told me about.

Other than that, she was in terrific shape. Pandabara was clearly an older animal, but her feet and fur looked great, and she had no trouble chomping her way through corn on the cob and acorn squash. We thought she would live forever.

Panda sailed through another winter, torrential spring rains, and then another sweltering summer. She swam, she grazed, and she ate her way through bushels of corn. Then, on Halloween, Melanie found her lifeless. After nearly three years of pampering and capybara bliss, she was gone. The necropsy report stated “renal failure.” But she was old, just very, very old, and most of her organs gave up. That’s the way most of us want to go- spoiled rotten but tuckered out.

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The ROUS Foundation still pays for capybara necropsies, by prior approval. Animals under 100 pounds can be shipped to Texas A&M, but we cannot guarantee reimbursement for shipping, which can be expensive. Timing is everything, and your animal needs to arrive before “Friday” so that staff is on site to perform the necropsy. If in doubt, contact us through the ROUS Foundation website. The necropsy results for Pandabara are available, by request and approval.

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