08/24/2025
The End That Never Comes
📽 by .pantanal
A capybara walks along the baked shore of this lagoon, careful not to set off any of the yacare claptraps she's missing by inches at best. Why isn’t she worried? Because this isn’t her first trip through the valley of despair.. She’s grown up in these wetlands, sharing muddy banks with caimans her whole life - these rodents stick close to water, grazing and dodging bigger threats like jaguars. Maybe she’s learned the caimans don’t stir unless she bolts or looks weak, a trick backed by studies showing predators skip calm, healthy targets.
The expected outcome and what actually happens here might seem confusing, but let’s wade into the why of it all. When animals like caimans, alligators, or crocodiles sunbathe, they’re focused on their own thermoregulation - soaking up heat to warm their cold-blooded bodies after a cool night or to keep their energy up. This basking state often makes them sluggish, as their metabolism slows while they conserve energy for digestion or rest, especially if they’ve recently eaten.
Also, hungry or not, and even with a healthy numbers advantage, they don’t look at a capybara as an easy kill, even if it is traipsing through a veritable minefield of teeth and bone crushing bite force. They would still need to catch it and drag it to the water, and that just isn’t the vibe right now. They are content to let this feast walk on by if it means keeping the peace, however temporary it may be.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Nature Is Metal is powered by you!
Did you record a wild video that you would like to get featured here?
natureismetal.com/submissions is the absolute best place to send it.
Our team checks the submission page daily
