http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/local/ci_4230682

Residents spot mysterious rodent
By James Downing

LUNENBERG -- It was turning out to be a normal, quiet night at the McDonald household on Tuesday, until the family's basset hound started yapping up a storm in the backyard, a family member said.

"The dog was barking in back,'" said Nicholas McDonald of 1065 Northfield Road. "And I saw this weird thing come out of the woods ... It looked like a huge rat."

The animal was probably a capybara, a large rodent native to the jungles of Central and South America, according to Bridget McAlice, a Mass Wildlife biologist.

"We've seen a picture, but we haven't seen it ourselves," McAlice said. "But it looks very similar to a capybara."

Nicholas McDonald's father, Frank, and mother, Deborah, photographed the animal, Frank McDonald said.

McAlice said capybaras can grow up to three feet in length and two feet in height at the shoulders. The rodents can weigh up to 140 pounds, McAlice said.

The rodent should not pose any threat to people, according to McAlice.

"I would just think of them as you do beavers. They eat grasses and bark," McAlice said. "They pose no danger to people."

Frank McDonald said the rodent came onto his property Tuesday at 7:30 p.m., crossed his lawn, and hung around a small pond they have, eating greenery for 45 minutes to an hour.

It left just before the police arrived, the older McDonald said.

"I thought it was an overgrown woodchuck," he said.

McDonald said his wife watches "The Crocodile Hunter" on cable TV every night and easily identified the animal.


Now I wonder how a capybara made it all the way up to Massachusetts from the jungles in South America [/i]