The largest rodents in the world take over the elite area of Buenos Aires

AP writes about the conflict that unfolded between people and capybaras.

Nordelta is a luxury gated complex of 1,600 hectares, built in 1999 on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, on the wetlands of the Parana River. This is a completely autonomous area for wealthy people: in addition to houses, Nordelt has offices, a shopping center, schools, a church, a synagogue and even an artificial lake where aquatic birds live. When designing the village, the developers probably did not attach any importance to the fact that Parana has always been the natural habitat of the capybara. Capybara, or capybara, is the largest rodent in the world, whose height can be 1.35 meters and weigh up to 80 kilograms.

Local residents have complained about the neighborhood of capybaras before. However, since the construction of the clinic began on the last remaining piece of natural land in Nordelt earlier this year, people have faced what they call a real "invasion" of giant rodents. Capybaras stain manicured lawns with their excrement, bite dogs and cause traffic accidents.

Environmentalists disagree with the claims of Nordelta residents: capybaras have always lived here, just before there was enough space for everyone, but now the completely displaced rodents have to fight for a place in the sun. By and large, this piece of land was not worth touching at all, as it belongs to the wild. Capybaras have indeed proliferated, becoming a threat to the environment, but humans are also to blame. If rodents had to share territory with jaguars, cougars, foxes, wild cats and wild dogs, the latter would control the capybara population and prevent them from feeling like masters. However, all these predators have practically died out due to ecosystem degradation in Argentina. In the absence of a predator, a herbivore can fearlessly reproduce and eat, destroying vegetation and thus contributing to climate change.

Nordelta and similar elite villages in Argentina have been criticized for a long time, and not only by wildlife defenders. In addition to displacing animals from their natural environment, large-scale development of wetlands leads to the fact that the soil loses its ability to absorb water from heavy rains, and this leads to flooding of neighborhoods where poor people live. Argentine leftists use Nordelta as an example of social inequality, jokingly portraying the capybara as a working-class hero.

However, not all residents of Nordelta consider capybaras to be enemies. Many admit that they are not so aggressive, and besides, they have become a kind of attraction of the residential complex. After all, capybaras are at home. Someone in Nordelt would like to create a nature reserve for them.

However, environmentalists argue that the reserve is unlikely to help. The only way to peacefully coexist with capybaras in Nordelt is to reduce the population here by relocating some of the residents to another place.