Capybaras in San Diego

Celebrated completion of the Contemporary Women Writer's Network conference by visiting San Diego Zoo; here I am reacquainting myself with the capybaras, cute and wondrous creatures rather like huge guineapigs (to my untrained eyes anyway). I am sure I made friends with a Capybara when I was young, and was allowed to get up close and stroke one at some sort of Norfolk wildlife reserve. Most children love animals and (barring big dogs of course) I was no exception. Lovely to come into their uncomplicated presence again after all the (equally wonderful but highly verbal) interaction at the conference. Inevitably one has mixed feelings about observing animals in captivity; some animals seem more confined by their cages, whether psychological or actual, than others; but at least S D zoo is very conscious of conservation and the need to protect endangered species.

According to Wiki P, 'During midday, as temperatures increase, Capybaras wallow in water and graze in late afternoons and early evenings when it is cooler. They sleep little, usually dozing off and on throughout the day and grazing into and through the night'. Well I guess they were having a sleepy stage at this time on a July afternoon.


From Denise Levertov's poem, 'Come into Animal Presence':

What is this joy? That no animal
falters, but knows what it must do?
That the snake has no blemish
That the rabbit inspects his strange surroundings
in white star-silence? The llama
rests in dignity, the armadillo
has some intention to pursue in the palm-forest.
Those who were sacred have remained so,
holiness does not dissolve, it is a presence
of bronze, only the sight that saw it
faltered and turned from it.
An old joy returns in holy presence.