Final week, Gollum confirmed up at a Washington State relaxation cease. This week, there’s a strange-looking, long-legged rodent on the free at Bear Creek Lake Park in Colorado. It’s a Patagonian mara, and it belongs in South America. And but, there’s one hanging out in Lakewood, Colorado, giving locals time making an attempt to identify it.
Kara Van Hoose with Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) advised 9 Information that CPW has set live-capture traps across the park in hopes they will catch the Patagonian mara and discover a protected dwelling for it. It’s doubtless the animal was somebody’s pet that escaped.
Patagonian maras are long-legged rodents that appear to be a cross between a tall rabbit and a tiny deer with a giant head. They’ve a grayish-brown coat of fur with some white and orange combined in there, too. They’ve clawed toes, lengthy ears, and brief tails.
These massive rodents can develop to be slightly below 2.5 toes lengthy, and, importantly, they reside in Argentina. Of their pure habitat, maras reside in brush-covered areas and grasslands. They largely eat grasses, seeds, fruits, and flowers, however additionally they eat their very own poop, , “to maximise nutrient absorption.”
Guests to Bear Creek Lake Park would possibly see the mara hopping or “stotting” round like a deer.
“Maras transfer in quite a lot of methods,” says Smithsonian’s Nationwide Zoo on its web site. “They could stroll, hop in a rabbit-like vogue, gallop or stot—a novel type of locomotion usually exhibited by ungulates, the place the animal bounces on all fours.”
Watch the information section right here:
If you happen to see this animal, please name CPW at 303-297-1192.
