ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. (AP) — Animal lovers now have a place to hang out with the “it” animals of the moment — big furry rodents.
In the back of a real estate office building in what is known as America's oldest city, capybaras are crawling into visitors' laps, munching on corn on the cob and hunting for scratches from humans at The Capybara Cafe in St. Augustine, Florida.
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Stephanie Angel holds a wallaby at the Capybara Cafe in St. Augustine, Fla., March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Mike Schneider)
An armadillo rests in Leah Macri's lap at the Capybara Cafe in St. Augustine, Fla., March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Mike Schneider)
A skunk crawls by a capybara at he Capybara Cafe in St. Augustine, Fla., March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Mike Schneider)
A capybara gets scratches from visitors at the Capybara Cafe in St. Augustine, Fla., March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Mike Schneider)
A capybara gets scratches from visitors at the Capybara Cafe in St. Augustine, Fla., March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Mike Schneider)
Stephanie Angel, left, shows off an armadillo to visitors at the Capybara Cafe in St. Augustine, Fla., March 14, 2025. (AP Photo / Mike Schneider)
“You give them lots of scratches and love," said Stephanie Angel, who opened The Capybara Cafe late last year. "A lot of times they’ll climb on your lap because they’re very used to people, and if you’re really good at giving scratches, they’ll actually fall over. So that’s always our goal to get them so comfortable that they fall over.”
Since opening its doors in October in downtown St. Augustine, near the Flagler College campus, hundreds of animal lovers have visited the site to give the capybaras head scratches. Reservations are booked several months in advance by patrons like Leah Macri, who recently visited the northeast Florida location from Orlando with her daughter.
“Their fur kind of feels like straw a bit,” Macri said.
After entering a reception area with couches and an open pen of baby chicks, visitors are escorted into a smaller room in groups of a half dozen or so people. Blankets are placed over their laps, and three capybaras are brought into the room. Other animals like a skunk, wallaby and armadillo are also introduced into the room, and they crawl among the humans and into their laps. The cost is $49 per person for a half-hour encounter, and $99 for an hour-long encounter that involves the other animals.
Even though she had come for the capybaras, Macri enjoyed holding the armadillo the most.
“He was the cuddly, like the best. He was just the softest,” she said. “He was just very sweet.”
The capybara — a semi-aquatic South American relative of the guinea pig — is the latest in a long line of “it” animals to get the star treatment in the United States. During last year's holiday shopping season, shoppers could find capybara slippers, purses, robes and bath bombs. Axolotls, owls, hedgehogs, foxes and sloths also had recent turns in the spotlight.
The web-footed capybaras can grow to more than 4 feet (1.2 meters) long and weigh well north of 100 pounds (45 kilograms).
Several zoos and wildlife parks across the U.S. offer encounters with capybaras, but Angel said none of them provide the intimacy with the animals that visitors get at the Capybara Cafe.
Angel said she plans to open another capybara cafe across the state in St. Petersburg, Florida, soon. The St. Augustine location doesn't sell coffee or hot food, like a cafe implied in its name, but it does sell capybara-themed T-shirts, coffee mugs and stuffed animals.
The cafe was created to financially support the Hastings, Florida-based nonprofit Noah's Ark Sanctuary Inc., an animal refuge, Angel said.
Chris Cooper, who visited the Capybara Cafe with his wife, was surprised at how rough and coarse the capybaras' hair was.
“And I wasn't expecting how affectionate they were,” said Cooper, who drove up 157 miles (253 kilometers) from Weeki Wachee to see the critters. “They enjoyed the hands-on rubs.”
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Stephanie Angel holds a wallaby at the Capybara Cafe in St. Augustine, Fla., March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Mike Schneider)
An armadillo rests in Leah Macri's lap at the Capybara Cafe in St. Augustine, Fla., March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Mike Schneider)
A skunk crawls by a capybara at he Capybara Cafe in St. Augustine, Fla., March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Mike Schneider)
A capybara gets scratches from visitors at the Capybara Cafe in St. Augustine, Fla., March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Mike Schneider)
A capybara gets scratches from visitors at the Capybara Cafe in St. Augustine, Fla., March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Mike Schneider)
Stephanie Angel, left, shows off an armadillo to visitors at the Capybara Cafe in St. Augustine, Fla., March 14, 2025. (AP Photo / Mike Schneider)
STRASBOURG, France (AP) — Serbian university students who say their fight for justice is being overlooked in much of Europe arrived to a hero's welcome Tuesday in the heart of the European Union. They cycled more than 1,300 kilometers (780 miles) from the Balkan country.
Around 80 students who set off on bicycles 13 days ago on a journey to Strasbourg, France, were aiming to draw EU attention to their monthslong protests against corruption in the Balkan nation. Serbia is formally seeking membership in the 27-nation bloc but has been backsliding in democratic freedoms and the rule of law.
They received an emotional welcome from hundreds of people, including members of the Serbian diaspora and French students and supporters upon arriving at the main square in Strasbourg where the European Parliament meets.
“I think that this protest action is a full success,” one of the cyclists said in a live N1 TV broadcast from Strasbourg where people gathered. “I think we have woken up Europe.”
Serbian university students have been a key force behind a nationwide anti-graft movement that includes almost daily street demonstrations that have rattled the Balkan nation’s President Aleksandar Vucic. While they have garnered huge support at home and throughout the Balkans, many students feel they haven’t received enough backing from the EU.
The students cycled 100-150 kilometers (60-90 miles) per day through Hungary, Slovakia, Austria and Germany before reaching Strasbourg where they received a red carpet welcome from Serbs living abroad and fellow-students from the EU.
They braved heavy rain and chilling temperatures along their journey across Europe that included a hero's welcome by supporters in Budapest, Vienna and in German towns.
The student-led protests in Serbia were triggered by the deaths of 16 people in a deadly train station canopy collapse in November, widely blamed on rampant corruption. They have since come to reflect wider discontent with the state of democratic freedoms in Serbia.
The protesting students have been demanding justice for the victims of the Nov. 1 canopy collapse and an end to government pressure and violence against protesters.
Vucic and his pro-government media have accused the students and their professors of working against the state to topple him from power together with unidentified Western security services. He has not provided any evidence for his claims.
The EU’s reaction to the mostly peaceful student-led protests has been lukewarm and officials have refrained from criticizing Vucic. They apparently consider him a key factor in maintaining peace in a region that went through a series of devastating wars in the 1990s.
In Strasbourg, the students plan to visit the Council of Europe and the European Parliament.
Since coming to power over a decade ago, Vucic has been accused of stifling democratic freedoms while maintaining close links with Russia and China.
In Serbia on Tuesday, student-led protesters temporarily blocked the entrances to Vucic's main propaganda TV broadcaster RTS in Belgrade and the northern town of novi sad to protest its coverage of the events.
A protester holds a sign before Serbian university students riding bicycles from Novi Sad, Serbia, and who say are fighting for justice and the rule of law, arrive the heart of the European Union to seek support, Tuesday, April 15, 2025 in Strasbourg, eastern France. (AP Photo/Antonin Utz)
Protesters hold signs before Serbian university students riding bicycles from Novi Sad, Serbia, and who say are fighting for justice and the rule of law, arrive the heart of the European Union to seek support, Tuesday, April 15, 2025 in Strasbourg, eastern France. (AP Photo/Antonin Utz)
People wave a Serbian flag before Serbian university students riding bicycles from Novi Sad, Serbia, and who say their fight for justice and the rule of law, arrive the heart of the European Union to seek support, Tuesday, April 15, 2025 in Strasbourg, eastern France. (AP Photo/Antonin Utz)
Protesters hold signs before Serbian university students riding bicycles from Novi Sad, Serbia, and who say are fighting for justice and the rule of law, arrive the heart of the European Union to seek support, Tuesday, April 15, 2025 in Strasbourg, eastern France. (AP Photo/Antonin Utz)
Protesting Serbian university students who rode bicycles from Novi Sad, Serbia, hug as they arrive the heart of the European Union to seek support, Tuesday, April 15, 2025 in Strasbourg, eastern France. (AP Photo/Antonin Utz)
Protesting Serbian university students who rode bicycles from Novi Sad, Serbia, arrive the heart of the European Union to seek support, Tuesday, April 15, 2025 in Strasbourg, eastern France. (AP Photo/Antonin Utz)
A bicycle belonging to a protesting Serbian university student who rode bicycles from Novi Sad, Serbia, lies with a Serbian flag in the heart of the European Union to seek support, Tuesday, April 15, 2025 in Strasbourg, eastern France. (AP Photo/Antonin Utz)
Protesting Serbian university students who rode bicycles from Novi Sad, Serbia, react after they arrive in the heart of the European Union to seek support, Tuesday, April 15, 2025 in Strasbourg, eastern France. (AP Photo/Antonin Utz)
Protesters hold signs before welcoming Serbian university students riding bicycles from Novi Sad, Serbia, and who say are fighting for justice and the rule of law, to arrive in the heart of the European Union to seek support, Tuesday, April 15, 2025 in Strasbourg, eastern France. (AP Photo/Antonin Utz)
Protesters one holding a poster reading "May the boulevards of the world remember the music of your wheels" react before welcoming Serbian university students riding bicycles from Novi Sad, Serbia, and who say are fighting for justice and the rule of law, to arrive the heart of the European Union to seek support, Tuesday, April 15, 2025 in Strasbourg, eastern France. (AP Photo/Antonin Utz)
Protesting Serbian university students who rode bicycles from Novi Sad, Serbia, react after they arrive in the heart of the European Union to seek support, Tuesday, April 15, 2025 in Strasbourg, eastern France. (AP Photo/Antonin Utz)
Protesting Serbian university students who rode bicycles from Novi Sad, Serbia, react after they arrive in the heart of the European Union to seek support, Tuesday, April 15, 2025 in Strasbourg, eastern France. (AP Photo/Antonin Utz)
Protesting Serbian university students who rode bicycles from Novi Sad, Serbia, arrive the heart of the European Union to seek support, Tuesday, April 15, 2025 in Strasbourg, eastern France. (AP Photo/Antonin Utz)
Protesting Serbian university students who rode bicycles from Novi Sad, Serbia, celebrate after they arrive in the heart of the European Union to seek support, Tuesday, April 15, 2025 in Strasbourg, eastern France. (AP Photo/Antonin Utz)
