Rio Golf Course: It's A Jungle Out There, Owl & Cabybara Edition

You're going to see them more than enough if you watch the Olympic golf coverage, but one of the great accomplishments of this course will be taking a property and making it better for wildlife through nature-based design and maintenance. That message hopefully is picked up by much of the world and may be one more important than who wins, or which developing nation gets more funding.

Gil Hanse told me today he's already seen a few bird species he never saw during construction and even he's astonished by the wildlife activity at a place that was already so active.

Steve DiMeglio wrote about the various critters for USA Today.

Here are the burrowing owls at the 9th, who have been allowed to do their thing. The Rules of Golf naturally allow for relief from this situation for the safety of all in involved.

A couple of shots from the ninth hole:

And the American contingent checking out the Capybara swimming around the 5th hole. Here's Rickie Fowler checking out the giant rodent who was busy munching on some greens.