Stroke a Capybara

[APC303]

Hello! I'm trying to find a meet a capybara experience thing where you can stroke them (if the capybaras are cool with it). I've seen a few but not convinced they are not just feed from a distance ones. Ideally in South of England but potentially willing to go to far north i.e. north of the M4. Thank you!

My sister met the capybaras at Wingham Wildlife park and it was basically a cuddle / feed session and you can ask what questions you want .

https://www.londonzoo.org/plan-your-visit/zoo-experiences/capybara-encounter

https://www.blackpoolzoo.org.uk/experiences/animals-experiences/meet-the-capybara

London and Blackpool there @APC303 Depends where you live. 😃

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Do they have capybaras there? They have tapirs but I've never seen a capybara. Howletts have capybaras.

I would get pets at home to let you stroke a guinea pig and tell them it's a pigmy capybara.

Capybaras are unlikely the happy about being stroked even if they don't make that obvious to you.

@Barrellturn definitely capybara , they are still advertising the experience . I’m not a fan of Howletts .

FFS, they look like giant rats, why would you want to stroke one?

They deffo do it at Jimmys Farm, Suffolk

They’re really popular among teens/young people, videos of capybaras are all over social media. Apparently it’s because they always seem calm.

We once stayed in a rural house n SW France by a river which had capybaras in it. Or was it coypu?
Anyway, they were very friendly, large but quite tame and loved eating apples from your hand.

Please check Exotic wildlife in Hereford, Ross on Wye.
This will hopefully give you some insight to the absolutely awful conditions that Wild animals go through so we can "pet" them

I done this at Chessington, got to stroke and feed them, they were very friendly

We did it at Beale Park, near Reading. One was up for strokes, one was not so keen, but both ate lots of food from us!

Coypu. We saw them in the river in SW France

https://www.wildsideexoticrescue.co.uk/

Brilliant place.

My adult DD is also mad about Capybaras so I’ve looked into this before. There is Drusilla’s in East Sussex https://www.drusillas.co.uk/close-encounters/beaver-close-encounter

Drusillas maybe. My dd did as part of a zookeeper day - not 100% if they do as standalone.

We did this at Chessington a few years ago and it was lovely.

'Capybaras can become so stressed, lonely, or unhappy in captivity that they lose the will to live, leading to premature death, often due to inadequate space, lack of social groups, constant human noise, or poor husbandry. These highly sensitive and social animals need specific conditions, like large bodies of water, plenty of space, and company of their own kind, to thrive; when these needs aren't met, they can experience profound mental suffering.'

All 3 died at Chessington in 2022,. They are much happier being kept in large groups of 10 plus so when one died the other two were so emotionally affected they died too from what I've read.

Not sure what i did wrong but i tried to post about the harm caused by petting farms referencing https://www.wildsideexoticrescue.co.uk/ but my post is in pink ...not posted? Sorry...very new to mn.

www.amazonworld.co.uk/animals.htm

Ive seen coypu in southern France before

Chew valley animal park outside Bristol do meet them sessions

Animals for entertainment ,I don't know why that doesn't sit well with me.
I may be wrong of course.

Chester Zoo Tapier and Capybara. The capys were very happy to be stroked and pushed into chin strokes the way guinea pigs do. They were very knowledgeable and didn't pressure the animals in any way to even be around us ( they had the entire enclosure to walk away to if they didn't want the food we had).

Thank you. Narrowed it down to here and All Things Wild. Just going go check the reviews first!