ABOUT TAPIRS AND CAPYBARAS
some hours before he reached his camp, so weak was he from loss of blood. The guides immediately went to bring in the jaguar's body, but they found it ruined, for the white ants were already at work. The claws and pads were were about the only parts worth saving.
The Capybara is another creature that seems to be hunted day and night by its enemies. It looks like a water hog but still it is a rodent, and the largest of the family.
One day a small herd of capybaras were slowly moving along the water's edge feeding quietly when suddenly they were attacked by a snake. In Brazil is found the largest snake in the world – the Anaconda. This reptile is usually about twenty or more feet long, but specimens have been found reaching a length of forty feet. It was an anaconda that was attacking our capybaras. Two of the creatures were caught, one in the snake's coils, and the other was killed by a blow on the head. The rest of the herd took to the water at once and swam across to the other bank. While they were in midstream they were attacked by alligators. First one vanished, then another until only two reached the opposite bank out of the orignial nine.
The jaguar hunts the capybara at all times and it is lucky that the little creature has large families, or it would soon become extinct. Sometimes the capybaras choose to live near a small lake where there are no alligators and then they are safe for they are splendid swimmers, and can stay under water from eight to twelve minutes. They know a trick like the crocodile and the hippopotamus, and that is they can come to the surface and only put out their nostrils to breath, and then dive again. In this way they are able to stay under water as long as they choose.
All snakes, and especially the Anaconda, are good swimmers. The anaconda however does not often attack the capybara while it is swimming. The little creature is more expert in the water than it is on land, and only it's aquatic equal could hope to seize it. If a jaguar comes near a herd of capybaras, they immediately run to the nearest water for the jaguar does not like to get its fur wet any better than the ordinary house cat. On more than one occasion, when a jaguar has been very close in persuit of a capybara, it has been fool enough to follow its prey into the water with the result that the capybara has made a deep dive, leaving its enemy on the surface, and then before the great cat could get to dry land it has had to reckon with a hungry alligator. The jaguar's teeth and claws make but little difference to the horned-armed reptile, and usually it is dragged beneath the surface in short order, and drowned.
