Rodent Spotlight: Capybara

Behold! The giant among rodent-kind: the mighty capybara! If you happen upon one of these large creatures, you might think they look something similar to a guinea pig, the funny thing is they are about the size of an actual pig. I think that if there is anything to be marveled about this creature it SHOULD be its size.

In my unpublished rodent fantasy "Tooth and Tail," I portrayed the capybaras as huge, lumbering giants with big clubs who were born for war. Somebody had to do it. I mean, if you are going to design a fantasy universe with nothing but rodents, who are you going to pick for that role? This is kind of where good, old-fashioned research worked out for the best in my case.

As much as I love the rodent, there is just so very little fiction written about them. It is a shame because they really look quite awesome. One thing in particular that has always stood out to me was their blunted nose. It just gives them a hard, intense look. I see them and WANT them to be a warrior race!

But if you read up on the critters, they are actually fairly docile. They are herbivores and are more known for being hunted themselves. It is a shame and could be one of the reasons they are not used much in fiction. Can you imagine what a difference in perception people would have if these giant rodents went around killing things?

In my story, I made the actual God of War a capybara named Bellum. I could see how he bonded with the mortal race whom he called his own and would lead them into fits of violence and death. I suppose this is where imagination seems to outclass reality. I liked my version of the creature more than the real animal itself. There is nothing wrong with that!

When you take a feral animal and give it the ability to think and feel as a human, you are already taking it out of the realm of reality. At this point, you have the freedom to take as much or as little as you wish from the encyclopedia as you need in order to make a fun story. I appreciated that the capybara was the world's largest rodent, and so I made them giants with a taste for war. And that aspect of them was really all I truly needed to bring them to life as people.

Thank you for reading my blog. If you like what you have seen here, please comment below, or you can email me at tooie@tooiekangaroo.com. TTFN.