It’s well known how much the internet loves cats, but over the years it seems to be turning its love to other animals as well. This also seems to be done 2022, which may have been the year of the tiger in the Chinese zodiac, otherwise it was year of the capybara.

But what is a capybara? It is also called differently hippo and it is the largest rodent in the world. You can find it on South America but also in savannahs and dense forests, often near bodies of water, as it is semi-aquatic.

So, surfing the Internet, you will see a capybara in the title role. on TikTok, Twitter, videos, photos and, of course, memes.

The love for these cute rodents, reminiscent of large guinea pigs, is not new. OUR Japan loves an animal for many years, mostly through anime “Kapibarasan” which first appeared in the early 00s. The Internet, of course, also embraced this early: the first capybara website had already been launched in 1998 and a decade later a capybara named Caplin Roos won your world YouTube.

Anyway, according to his inclinations google, searches for the term “capybara” began to show an upward trend in August 2021 and increased sharply in May 2022 while remaining high.

One thing is definitely responsible for the above memes It went viral and is linked to a video of a capybara sitting in the passenger seat of a car. The meme was named “Okay, I’m pulling up” from the lyrics of Don Tolliver’s “After Party” featured in the video.

Darby – page admin @capivers on Instagram, which she launched in March 2021. As she explains, “Her popularity grew organically – I think that says something about the growing popularity of capybaras.” At this time, the account reached them 100 thousand subscribers, while the corresponding Facebook groups reach 125k members. As for the hashtag #Capybara almost 4 billion views.

Check out this post on Instagram.

A post published by Capybaras 🧡 (@capyverse)

However, the weakness of the capybaras does not end there. OUR Yves Morin who works in Shepret Wildlife Park in Britain, it is noted that the number of those who want to meet capybaras at the zoo exceeds the number of visitors who want to meet all other animals combined in the respective tours.

Capybaras are characterized looseness Perhaps this is one of the reasons why, in a world where everything runs at a fast pace and doesn’t look particularly benevolent, the image of a capybara can create calmness.

The same thing happens to some in the so-called “doom scrolling”. In a timeline full of negative news, a cute animal like the capybara is what some people need at the moment.

Because often, in the end, all we need is a sweet and kind animal that will at least lighten our burden a little.

According to Dazed.