Luciana Castello Branco was fast asleep in her home in Brasília, Brazil, when something unexpected jolted her awake in the middle of the night.
At around 3:30 a.m., her small dog, Pinga, suddenly leapt out of bed and rushed toward the balcony — clearly alerting her human that something unusual was happening.
“She jumped out of bed and went straight to the balcony,” Branco told The Dodo.
Curious (and now fully awake), Branco followed her pup outside. What she saw instantly explained Pinga’s excitement.
Marching calmly down the quiet street below was a single-file parade of capybaras — the world’s largest rodents and native residents of the region.
“There they were, all lined up,” Branco said. “I grabbed my phone right away and started filming.”
Here’s that moment on video:
The group moved together like a perfectly organized procession, padding through the empty streets as if they owned the place — which, in a way, they kind of do.
Branco lives between a lake, where the capybaras spend much of their time, and a grassy field where they like to graze. So while this wasn’t her first capybara sighting, it never gets old.
“I couldn’t fall back asleep after that,” she said. “But it’s always a pleasure to see them out and about. I’m an animal lover, and I love watching them wander around, especially near the lake.”
For most people, waking up in the middle of the night is an annoyance. For Branco, it turned into an unforgettable reminder that sometimes, the most magical moments happen when you least expect them — even at 3:30 in the morning. 🐾
