stuckinabucket:

Viscacha (Lagostomus sp.)

Fat? Oh my god yes.  Fluffy? So fluffy.  Rodent?  Check.

Viscachas are highly social herbivores, closely related to chinchillas, and get a kick out of looking as zen as humanly possible.  They weigh about five* pounds, and there are five known species.  One of them, the plains viscacha, ups the ante by looking like this:

So.

They’re actually kind of like prairie dogs if prairie dogs were nocturnal and weren’t cannibals.  The girls all club together and colonize a place, and the boys cycle in and out as they see fit.  Colonies can last decades, with everybody pitching in to dig the tunnels and guard against predators.

*This is how we smashed into Mars, kids.

They’re like small fuzzy Buddhas!

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