The world’s largest rodent, the capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) have been imported to Japan to relax in Japanese hot springs!

The capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) is the largest rodent extant in the world, and this species is endemic to South America, where it is abundantly found in most parts of the continent. It is a very cool animal with some interesting adaptations, but in this post I want to talk a bit about a cultural phenomenon related to these animals instead of the biology.

Two capybaras, here in a zoo. Image is public domain.

The capybaras are really gentle animals that usually live in herds. They can be weight up to almost 70kg, so they are pretty large, but these timid animals go well with humans and dogs once they have gotten used to it. In many ways they can be compared to pretty large guinea pigs, which they are also very closely related to. They actually make pretty good pets, but most states and countries forbid the keeping of these exotic animals.

Capybaras in Japan

We’ve all heard about Japan’s attraction towards cute animals, and in recent years the popularity of capybaras have spiked there. It all started when Tempozan Anipa, a zoo located in Osaka, introduced a zone where visitors could interact with animals, and one of these was the capybara. They became popular, and soon became the main attraction in another zoo, the Kobe Animal Kingdom.

They sure are enjoying themselves. Part of from this YouTube video.

After being a hit in the zoo, owners of parks with “onsen”, a Japanese bathing facility based around a natural hot spring, began to import capybaras to have them chill out in the hot springs! Naturally, capybaras like water, and will always seek out water to hide from predators when available. After introducing them to the hot springs, it also seemed that they really enjoyed relaxing in warm water, and they really seem to enjoy themselves at these locations. There are thousands of videos of capybaras chilling out at onsen on YouTube, and you should go take a look at some of these yourself. They are incredibly cute when they are chilling out on the hot water.

As I said above, the capybaras popularity has increased a lot in Japan in the recent years, and many people think that capybara cafés will be a thing in the future, adding to animal cafés such as dog cafés, owl cafés and other animal cafés.

How ethical is this?

I think most of us can agree that they are very cute when they are chilling in the hot springs, and will even be cute to pet while having a coffee, but this also raises to big ethical questions. These animals have generally not been kept as pets for long, so most of them will still have lots of natural instincts. In nature, they are the prey species of many different predators, so just like the guinea pigs, they will spend a lot of their time trying to hide from predators, and will easily be scared from sudden movements and loud noises. This might not be the best instinct to have if you live in a café.

I’m not going to take a very firm stance in this post, but I think this ethical problem is worth considering and debating when we see exotic animals become popular. We already have a lot of cute animals that have coevolved alongside us to be good pets, so do we really need new ones?

Anyway, thanks for reading. I hope to see some opinions below, either about the ethical issue, or just about how adorable they look in the hot springs!