st. Augustine, Fla. (AP) – Animal lovers now have a place to hang out with the “it” animals of the moment: big furry rodents.
Behind the real estate office building known as America’s oldest city, Capybaras is raw in visitor wraps, munching on corn on the cob, and searching for wounds from humans at Capybara Café in St. Augustine, Florida.
“You give them a lot of hurt and love,” said Stephanie Angel, who opened the Capybara cafe late last year. “In many cases, they climb onto your lap because they’re so used to people. If you’re really good at inflicting wounds, they actually fall.
Since opening the door to downtown St. Augustine near the Flagler College Campus in October, hundreds of animal lovers have visited the site and have suffered a wound to the head of a capybara. Bookings will be booked months in advance by patrons like Leah Macri, who recently visited a location in northeastern Florida from Orlando with her daughter.
“Their fur feels a bit like a straw,” Macri said.
After entering the reception area with a sofa and baby chicks open pen, visitors are escorted into a small room with a group of about half a dozen people. The blanket is placed on your lap and three capybara are brought into the room. Other animals such as skunks, wallabies and armadillos are also introduced into the room, craving between the knees among humans. The cost is $49 per person for a 30-minute encounter and $99 per hour encounter involving other animals.
Despite her coming for the capybara, Macri enjoyed holding the armadillo the most.
“He’s cute, like he’s the best. He was just soft,” she said. “He was very sweet.”
Capybara, a semi-aquatic South American relative of guinea pigs, is the latest in a long line of “it” animals for stellar treatment in the United States. During the holiday shopping season last year, shoppers were able to find capybara slippers, wallets, robes and bath bombs. Axolotls, Owls, Hedghogs, Foxes and Sloths also highlighted their recent turns.
Web-footed capybara grows over 4 feet (1.2 meters) long and weighs 100 pounds (45 kilograms) north.
Several zoos and wildlife parks in the United States offer a meeting with capybara, but Angel said they don’t offer the intimacy of animals that visitors get at Capybara’s cafes.
Angel said she plans to open another Capybara Café across the state soon in St. Petersburg, Florida. The St. Augustine location doesn’t sell coffee or hot food, like the cafe implied by its name, but sells capybara themed T-shirts, coffee mugs and stuffed animals.
The cafe was created to financially support Noah’s Ark Sanctuary, a nonprofit based in Florida.
Visiting Capybara’s cafe with his wife, Chris Cooper was surprised at how rough and rough Capybaras’ hair was.
“And I didn’t expect how loving they were,” Cooper said. “They enjoyed practical friction.”
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