The only good part about winter are these capybaras in a yuzu bath

Capybara baths > human baths any day of the week.
 By 
Heather Dockray
 on 

This is One Good Thing, a weekly column where we tell you about one of the few nice things that happened this week.


Baths are an extremely overrated form of self-care: they're often too warm, incredibly filthy, and loaded with foul bacteria.

Meanwhile, baths for nature's most underrated animal, the capybara, provide plenty of soothing both for the animal and for the sad human voyeur.

I'm a particular fan of this video of capybaras soaking in a yuzu bath which went viral this week, and for which we should all be grateful.

Every year for the winter solstice, zookeepers at multiple zoos across Japan soak capybaras in yuzu baths. The tradition started at Izu Shaboten Zoo in 1996 and has since taken off, though the practice has been used as a way to ward off illness for centuries.

It's unclear how effective these baths are, but who cares? It's cute AF and we all deserve something cute AF in our lives.

Yuzus are a citrusy fruit frequently used by the more highbrow contestants on the Great British Baking Show.

Indulge your deepest anthropomorphic fantasies and look at how happy it makes them:

Enormous furry rats deserve self-care too. Thank you to the zookeepers who gave joy to these creatures as well as the voyeuristic humans who love them.

Mashable Image
Heather Dockray

Heather was the Web Trends reporter at Mashable NYC. Prior to joining Mashable, Heather wrote regularly for UPROXX and GOOD Magazine, was published in The Daily Dot and VICE, and had her work featured in Entertainment Weekly, Jezebel, Mic, and Gawker. She loves small terrible dogs and responsible driving. Follow her on Twitter @wear_a_helmet.

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