About capybaras
The capybara is the largest rodent in the world: over a metre long and over 60 kilos. It is also the calmest animal on record — until it senses danger. That is where the game begins.
She really does bark
A capybara's alarm call is a short, dry bark, much like a small dog's. It is not aimed at the predator: it is for the group. Whoever hears it stops what they are doing and looks the same way, and the warning is handed on from one animal to the next until the whole group is standing. That is why the bark, not the running, is the centre of this game.
First she freezes
Before running, a capybara stops. She stands motionless with her head up, working out what that noise was — and standing still in tall grass, with brown fur and almost no contrast, she disappears. Hurrying is what gives her away. In the game that is one key: freezing cuts the chance of being seen a great deal, though never to zero, and the albino gets no such discount.
The water is her home
Capybaras are semi-aquatic: partly webbed toes, strong swimmers, and gone under the surface whenever they need to be. Eyes, ears and nostrils sit in a line on top of the head, so she can see, hear and breathe with her whole body submerged — the same design as a caiman, for the same reason. Resting on the bottom she can hold out for several minutes, and that is how she escapes nearly everything that chases her on land.
Far more than the bark
The repertoire is wide: thin whistles, contact grunts between mother and pup, a purr from an animal at ease, teeth chattering from an annoyed one, the squeal of a lost youngster. Some counts put it above ten distinct sounds. The funniest is the high call, almost bird-like, that she uses to get attention — from a distance nobody believes it came from a 60-kilo animal.
The albino capybara
She exists, she is extremely rare, and the story is always the same: she turns up in a herd, everyone notices her, and she makes the news. Albinism removes the camouflage that is the species' main defence — which is exactly why she is this game's hard mode, and why she scores double.
Why there are so many capybaras in the city
A Brazilian city usually has a river, trimmed lawns and no jaguars: for a capybara, that is unlimited food with no predator. So she stays. She crosses avenues, grazes in squares, moves into gated neighbourhoods, and every now and then walks into a supermarket. Places like these, all real, are where this game's levels come from.
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