Mara on the Pampa

09juli2014
Source: artis.nl
On the Pampa at Royal Artis zoo, maras live right alongside vicunas and llamas in this South American habitat. Maras are also called Patagonian hares, though they are related not to the hare, but to the guinea pig.
And yet they do resemble hares: with their long legs they can leap as far as two metres. They measure approximately 70 cm from head to tail and weigh 9 to 15 kilogrammes.

The young are quite well developed at birth, and they remain with the rest of the group in a burrow. During the first weeks of life, a young mara drinks only milk, but quite soon it starts to graze and gnaw with the older animals. Since a birth in mid-May, the mara group on the Pampa in Artis numbers 11 animals. The other animals on the Pampa are quite interested in the small mara. The mature maras, the vicunas and the llamas keep a close eye on the little one. And the older the young mara gets, the more it goes exploring outside the burrow and in the enclosure.