The 3d Quarter We Hunted the Mammoth pledge drive came to a successful conclusion on Friday, and I just wanted to offer you all some giant-rodent-sized THANKS for all of your support!
Your donations enable me to keep this blog going strong. Your support, financial and otherwise, means a great deal to me personally as well.
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I usually end these thank-you posts with the tackiest cat gifs I can find. In keeping with the capybara theme of this pledge drive, I’m going to post some very happy capybaras instead. (And don’t worry, cat people, I’ll return to posting kitty pics shortly.)
Thanks for all your work, David. And for giving me a new appreciation of capybaras.
http://67.media.tumblr.com/645bfdb9596dcdea5da0d87ecd6bb4cf/tumblr_n0y2ajZ5rB1tt14o9o1_500.jpg
Capybaras seem like remarkably chill animals.
Happy Canadian Turkey Day / Indigenous People’s Day!
Thank you for the Capybaras!
Capybaras are special creatures. I can recommend the Rat Race episode of Kenny vs Spenny, for fans of rats of various sizes.
I showed my mother some of the capybara videos and she wanted to know more. So I pulled up wikipedia on her tablet and asked her to read me the interesting bits while I finished getting dinner ready.
So apparently baby capybaras, when in a herd, will nurse any lactating female, not just their mother. My questions: Is this true? Is this wikifail/mistaking captive/wild behaviors? Is this normal behavior for any other species?
@eli
Smurfs do the same.
@IP
Poor Smurfette. She’s gotta do everything. 😀
Thanks for your hard work, David!
For you and anyone else who cares, I’m now going to share the most amazing thing I just discovered: I’ve been doing baked potatoes wrong my whole life. It’s not russet, but yukon gold potatoes which are the absolute best for baking. OMG, they’re so lovely and flavorful and creamy but with a bit of a bite and nom nom nom.
David…you bow to no one.
Capybaras are the most dignified-looking animal. I’ve yet to see one that couldn’t rock a monocle.
Oh, in case anyone wasn’t aware of it:
http://animalssittingoncapybaras.tumblr.com/
I thank you, the world’s proud and condescending capybaras thank you!
Well done, David.
By the way, is it me or is there a problem with icons on the left side of alias ? They do not appear here.
@Eli
Actually other mammals do have communal nursing. Mice, prairie dogs and rats will combine their litters into a communal nest (allomothering) because young raised communally grow faster. Larger first born are less likely to out compete littermates with shared nursing (allonursing). Young mothers learn from experienced mothers. This may be why cats will share nursing, lions and domestics.
Many species of monkey share parenting as do bats.
http://www.life.umd.edu/faculty/wilkinson/Wilkinson1992.pdf
http://www.academia.edu/626257/Multiple_breeding_females_and_allo-nursing_in_a_wild_group_of_moustached_tamarins_Saguinus_mystax_
Experiments with mice tested communal nursing versus single mother nursing on early growth rates. With rats it happens with siblings in communal nests.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/5814184
http://www.ratbehavior.org/CommunalNesting.htm
Capybara are members of the caviomoph types of the order rodentia along with porcupines and guinea pigs. Many cavys have communal rearing but the mara does not share nursing.
https://books.google.com/books?id=gKuaCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA291&lpg=PA291&dq=herd+communal+nursing++young&source=bl&ots=ybmJ1tU683&sig=GHD2YuOkbnS5VlGn5Ryp2-Oo_wk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj8ufb3rtLPAhWCqh4KHb37AKMQ6AEIRjAI#v=onepage&q=herd%20communal%20nursing%20%20young&f=false
@ ray of rays
I completely get what you mean. In my head I imagine they all sound like Lady Bracknell.
(I now want to produce an all capybara version of The Importance of Being Earnest. How does that kickstarter thing work?)
@GardenGallivant
Thank you so much for the reply and references! I’m still on the first link, but there seems to be a whole ugly raft of assumptions researchers made about these behaviors (“female error”).
Thanks again. This is why I love this place :D!