Owning Caplin Rous, the World's Most Famous -- and Spoiled -- Giant Rodent

Mar 23rd 2010

His name is Caplin Rous (pronounced "rose") and he's a capybara, a species with the distinction of being the largest rodent in the world. Capybaras are native to South America, but Caplin was born and raised in Texas, where he lives with his owner, software engineer Melanie Typaldos, and her husband.

At 2-and-a-half years old, Caplin weighs 100 pounds and is often mistaken for a giant hamster. He has his own website, a Facebook page with over 3,600 friends (not bad for a rodent); he's the star of dozens of videos on his popular YouTube channel; and his owner has even written a children's book about him.

"He's kind of like the world's most spoiled capybara," Typaldos says.

What made you want to get a capybara?
My kids and I went to Venezuela and we saw capybaras in the wild. Our guide went out and picked up a baby one and he let my daughter hold it. That made her fixate on capybaras and when we came back, she kept saying that I had to get one. My daughter, who's 29, lived in an apartment and couldn't have one, but she insisted that I needed a capybara. We got Caplin in July 2007 from a breeder in Nacogdoches, Texas. He was just 11 days old and weighed four pounds.

How does Caplin typically spend his days?
He gets me up in the morning and he has to have his breakfast yogurt. Then he needs to have a bath. He likes a long, warm soak in the tub while I get ready for work. He rolls around and plays with toys.

After his bath, I'll work on the computer and he'll sit on the window seat and keep me company. If the weather's nice, we push him out and he has to stay outside all day and enjoy the sun and graze. He has two pools and a pond he can get in. When I come home, he'll go for a swim in the swimming pool and I have to watch him and play with him. The second I leave, he gets out. He's very needy.