A Sad Capybara Story With a Happy Ending 悲しいカピバラの物語 - ハッピーエンド

21st of August 2015: At the end of watermelon feeding time, a small, round, very sweet watermelon appeared, brought by a visitor. Dongurri decided she wanted it all to herself. Donguri hadn't had much of the Biopark watermelon and as the senior capybaras, Hinase, Maple etc had had their fill and disappeared to visit Goemon, the only challengers with this new little watermelon were the very junior capybaras: Aoba, Cookie and Keiko. They know that Donguri will not harm them so they kept coming back to challenge her. Donguri looks like she is being very aggressive but in fact she never actually bites the other capybaras. As she twisted and turned to fend off the other capybaras trying to eat her watermelon she injured her leg. Donguri is almost 11 years old and the 5th oldest capybara in Japan.

About half an hour later she begins to limp and is obviously in great pain. Being highly intelligent and thoughtful she decides to go over to the "treatment room" where sick capybaras are taken to be cared for. She stands in the doorway waiting for somebody to notice her. I have never seen another capybara do this when they are injured and it just reinforces my observations about what a clever and intelligent capybara she is. The vet is called. It is important for her to rest and the best place for her to do this is in the pond. Her daughter, Momiji, is very supportive and sits near her whenever she is on land and is the only capybara who stays with her in the pond. Donguri is obviously very depressed.

After 5 days her leg seems much better and Donguri rejoices, rolling in the watermelon juice and playing and nuzzling Momiji in the pond. Donguri and Momiji have a special relationship; Momiji is the only one of Donguri's daughters still living in the herd at the Bio Park.

From my diary: 23rd of August 2015: Donguri was feeling much happier today. She was walking better, although she still finds it too painful to sit down. She came over at lunchtime for her watermelon which I take as a very good sign since yesterday she did not come at all even though she loves watermelon.

I asked if Donguri could be given her watermelon away from the rest of the herd so that she would not be challenged and get into any conflict and make her injury worse. In fact the Director of the Bio Park personally served her her piece of watermelon! I'm not sure Donguri realised how honoured she was. The keeper then gave her a 2nd piece of watermelon. And after that a whole procession of people fed her bamboo. They all sat quietly beside her and let her eat the entire bunch of bamboo, rather than just letting her have one mouthful. We of course gave her a huge amount of pellets as well as some watermelon for breakfast.

After that I told her it was time for her to go back in the pond to rest her leg. She disobeyed me completely! First she wanted to sit in the sun, except it was too painful to sit down so she just stood for a long while. Marc and I petted her.

Then finally she took the longest possible route into the pond, going right round the edge of the pond. Then stopping for 10 minutes to sniff some rocks which I've never seen her do before. This no doubt was to keep me on edge knowing I wouldn't relax until she was safely back in the pond. Then instead of going into the pond at the easiest point, she continued on past Toku's enclosure and chose to jump in at a difficult place with a 2 foot drop into the pond. I hope she really enjoyed being a disobedient capybara.

24 August 2015:

Видео A Sad Capybara Story With a Happy Ending 悲しいカピバラの物語 - ハッピーエンド канала Capybara World