Skip to content

Zoology: C - Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris Traditional Cache

Hidden : 4/12/2020
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
2 out of 5

Size: Size:   small (small)

Join now to view geocache location details. It's free!

Watch

How Geocaching Works

Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions in our disclaimer.

Geocache Description:


I am a zoologist by training and thought it would be fun to do a virtual zoo (the world is doing everything virtually right now anyway, thanks to the COVID-19 virus). This cache is the 3rd in the series and is sponsored by the letter C.

 

The capybarra (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) is the world's largest rodent and can get to be the size of a sheep.  What!?! A sheep-sized rodent? Yup.  They get huge. I'm sure this was the inspiration for the Princess Bride's ROUS (rodent of unusual size). They are native to South America and are semi-aquatic mamals. Their fur is somewhat wirey, they remind me of an overgrown guinea pig and their teeth, like those of other rodents continue to grow their whole lives. They are herbivoires, eating hard to digest grasses, but they also have an odd behavior of eating their own poo-especially in the morning.  Why, you may ask, do they do that? Their morning poo is rich in protein (due to the high level of microbes digesting the previous day's meals) and this helps to break down those hard to digest grasses I was telling you about earlier.  

 

In my zoologist career, I was able to care for two capybarras, ROUS and Buttercup. They liked to be scratched under their chins and would enjoy it so much that they would just stop what they were doing and begin to drool.  

 

Now that you've learned a bit about capybarras, take a moment once you have found the cache to admire the view from here. It really is a nice one.

 

Here is a link to the other caches in the Zoology series.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

FCBE

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)