Cavies and maras | Caviidae

Cavia's en mara's | Cávidos

Stocky South American rodents with a large head, a very short tail or none at all, and four toes on the forefoot against three behind, ending in hoof-like nails. The food is grass and herbs, broken down by bacteria behind the stomach in a capacious caecum; the soft pellets this produces are taken up again. Gestation is long for a rodent and the young are born far advanced: furred, seeing, and able to eat solid food within a day. The mara is the long-legged member of the family, built like a hare, with a galloping and bounding gait over open plains; pairs stay together for life and the young are reared in a communal creche to which several pairs come to suckle their own. Europe holds one small population escaped from captivity.