{"id":142279,"date":"2026-02-03T19:17:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T19:17:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/142279\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T19:17:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T19:17:21","slug":"worlds-largest-rodent-gaining-popularity-in-tampa-bay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/142279\/","title":{"rendered":"World’s largest rodent gaining popularity in Tampa Bay"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 While people in Punxsutawney are celebrating the groundhog this week, right here in Tampa Bay, folks are trying to promote another cute, furry rodent.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re called Capybaras, the largest rodent in the world, and soon there\u2019s going to be a sanctuary dedicated to them in St. Pete and the community can help build it.<\/p>\n

WATCH full report by Robert Boyd<\/p>\n

World’s largest rodent gaining popularity in Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can get up to 150 pounds, which is mind-blowing because you see them and you think they are already huge,\u201d said Brianna Holzerland.<\/p>\n

Over the past year, Holzerland has adopted three Capybaras, but she\u2019ll be the first to point out, they aren\u2019t pets: they\u2019re part of a new non-profit organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to create an environment for them where when guests walk in and interact and feed them, they feel like they went into the Amazon,\u201d said Holzerland.<\/p>\n

They call the sanctuary Capy Cove<\/a>. They\u2019re currently in the process of raising enough money to build it in downtown St. Pete.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the feature that I\u2019m really really excited about is we are going to have a grotto,\u201d said Holzerland. \u201cThey are semi-aquatic animals; they can hold their breath up to five minutes at a time, that is why if you look at their feet, they have very webbed toes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holzerland, who holds a class three wildlife permit, says the goal is to educate the public while at the same time providing a therapeutic experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can just sit here with them and watch them roll around, kiss them, love them, feed them, so it\u2019s something that at the end of the day you can sit down, decompress and just spend 30 minutes feeling like you are part of the earth again,\u201d said Holzerland.<\/p>\n

To help raise money and awareness for their mission, Brianna has teamed up with Kawah Coffee on Gandy Boulevard in Tampa to offer daily Capybara encounters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are very sweet and docile and just majestic, they are kind of like mythical creatures you would never get to see normally,\u201d said one visitor.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing, I always wanted to meet one of these in person, so having the opportunity in Tampa Bay, I didn\u2019t know it was there,\u201d said another visitor.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019ve never been around any of these its well worth checking them out just seeing how cool some of the other creatures on earth are,\u201d said a third visitor.<\/p>\n

The encounters cost $40 for 30 minutes and include a free coffee, with all proceeds going back to building Capy Cove, which they hope to officially open this summer.<\/p>\n

Capybara encounter hours are Monday to Friday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really wanted to cater this to wildlife conservation and something everyone can appreciate,\u201d said Holzerland.<\/p>\n

Share Your Story with Robert

We all take pride in where we live, and Robert Boyd takes pride in highlighting why we feel that way. Whether it\u2019s people doing good or underrepresented communities that deserve a spotlight, Robert wants to know about them. Just use the form below to reach out to Robert.
.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

How journalists battle the rise of AI fake news<\/p>\n

As News Literacy Week kicks off in partnership with Scripps News, Tampa Bay 28 reporter Michael Paluska sat down with fact-checkers at PolitiFact to learn how they combat misinformation<\/a> in the age of AI.<\/p>\n

AI is making fake news harder to spot: How journalists at PolitiFact debunk it<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 While people in Punxsutawney are celebrating the groundhog this week, right here in Tampa…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[205,69001,69002,69003,276,69004,8276,18143,69005,202,204,203,199,201,200,3670],"class_list":["post-142279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-abc-action-news","tag-brianna-holzerland","tag-capy-cove","tag-capybaras","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-kawah-coffee","tag-non-profit","tag-robert-boyd","tag-rodent","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa-bay-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}