A trio of Capybara babies were born at Twycross Zoo this month and they are out in the sunshine, exploring their habitat. Capybara usually only breed once a year, and have a gestation period of 5 months, giving birth to up to 8 young. The babies are born weighing just about 2 pounds (.91 kgs).

The Capybara can be found in several types of social groupings, ranging from simple male-female pairings, to parents and young to larger mixed groups, with one male that is dominant over all the females in that group. Here the little ones mix easily with the adults, but look pretty small in comparison!

The babies nostrils, eyes and ears are all positioned on top of its head because they will spend a lot of time in the water -- and in the wild, they'd need to look out for predators while swimming. Their webbed toes will help them become both excellent swimmers and divers. Their diet is based on water based vegetation and grasses. Water plants, young buds and soft tree bark are eaten in the day and fresh grass in the evening.

The range of the Capybara covers much of South America east of the Andes down to south Uruguay where they inhabit densely vegetated areas around ponds, lakes, rivers, marshes and swamps.

Photo Credit: Twycross Zoo