The ROUS Foundation has collected capybara weights since about 2007. The lack of available data regarding capybara weights inspired us to collect as much data as possible. We were lucky to have a number of cooperative owners and quickly amassed enough data to determine the range of normal capybara weights at up to about one year old. We also discovered some disturbing trends among low-weight capybaras and were able to encourage diet changes and Vitamin C supplementation to increase their chance for survival.
Tatyana Guy and Dr. Sharman Hoppes, what a team!
The ROUS Foundation has been working with Sharman Hoppes at Texas A&M University (TAMU) since 2011. In 2018, we decided to hire a TAMU veterinary student to interpret our data and prepare it for publication.
Tatyana Guy was selected from an outstanding group of interested students. Among other qualifications, she volunteered at the Houston Zoo and worked with their capybaras. Imagine our surprise when one of those capybaras turned out to be one of the capybaras in our study!
Tatyana reviewed all of the data from the ROUS Foundation Why Weight study and several zoos.
Tatyana was able to gather data from several zoos to augment our data, something we never achieved. She worked with a statistician at TAMU to properly analyze the data and prepare charts to illustrate it. She wrote an abstract and a paper describing the project, the data, and conclusions. Her goal is to complete the work and publish at the end of this summer!
Publication of our data will help captive capybaras in zoos and private collections everywhere.
All of her progress is in spite of TAMU going to remote learning this spring. In addition to her veterinary studies and the ROUS Foundation Why Weight project, she is working on a care sheet for capybaras, and received a copy of a draft of the Capybara Care Manual, a 110 page document created by the AZA Capybara Species Survival Plan®. We are truly amazed at what she is accomplishing!
Tatyana’s stipend is funded by your contributions to the R.O.U.S. Fund at TAMU.
