Capybaras are taking over TikTok and we’re better for it

polygon.com:

Capybaras are back in a big way thanks to a silly song on TikTok. The world’s biggest rodent is now taking over the massive video-sharing app, TikTok. Thanks to a catchy new song about capybaras, users are cutting footage and images of the furry mammals into videos on the app. At the time of publication, the sound has been used over 384,000 times with the top videos garnering as many as 16 million views.

The song that sparked the trend is by a Russian artist and it’s just called “Capybara” in Russian. It sort of sounds like a song from a children’s show. The lyrics go, “Ca-py-bara capybara capybara capybara capybara capybara.” It’s just a little earworm that’s super easy to sing to.

Native to South America, capybaras are the largest living rodent in the world, the encyclopedia Britannica says. The larger of the two species can grow up to 176 pounds, but the smaller ones definitely make for some cute TikToks. They are slow-moving mammals that hang out in groups in the water. Their adorable brown coat and squinty eyes, paired with their seemingly easy-going nature, have entered these animals into the canon of super popular internet animals.

Moseying away from its typical forests and wetlands environments, capybara content found a home on Tumblr, according to Know Your Meme. In 2013, a Tumblr account showing various animals laying on top of capybaras took off, where viewers could peruse images of other cute animals like monkeys or bunnies sleeping on the mammals. The animal’s popularity ebbed and flowed — at one point footage from a BBC nature documentary became a popular reaction gif known as “shocked capybara.” Fast forward a few years to 2018 and Katsuhito Watanabe shared videos of the animals vibing and taking a yuzu