In 2021, social media users enthusiastically shared posts that appeared to suggest a new "green" species of capybara had been discovered. On Feb. 15, wildlife photographer Bruno Brack posted a short video of a group of green-striped capybara walking over grass, along with the following caption:
The recently discovered new species: the green Capybara, Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris viridis.
Brack's widely shared video was further promoted in a post by Twitter user @LoochMcGooch.
Some users will have quickly recognized that Brack's description was intended to be light-hearted, and showed the giant rodents covered in algae, rather than natural green pigmentation, but others did not, especially in light of Brack's authentic-seeming, Latin species name.
Brack himself quickly clarified that no new species had been discovered, and explained the true contents of his video, writing: "A group of Capybaras just left a swamp with duckweed and algae."
Based on information contained in Brack's Twitter profile, he appears to have filmed the footage himself, and later specified it had been captured in Paraguay.