Police in Rio de Janeiro have arrested eight people for brutally beating a capybara – the world’s largest rodent.

Resembling a giant guinea pig, the light brown capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) is often seen roaming the Brazilian city, particularly near streams and lagoons.

In an incident filmed by security cameras before dawn on Saturday, a group of attackers beat the capybara with sticks and iron bars in the neighbourhood of Ilha do Governador.

“This is a brutal crime that shocks society,” said Felipe Santoro, the police commissioner in charge of the investigation, was quoted as saying by the O Globo daily newspaper.

“It is an act of extreme cruelty toward a creature that posed absolutely no threat … yet was deliberately attacked nonetheless,” he added.

The attackers – including two minors – were identified through CCTV footage and arrested on Saturday, police said in a statement.

The capybara, a 65kg (143lb) male, was taken to the Wildlife Care Center (CRAS) at the private Estacio University in south-western Rio.

Jeferson Pires, the veterinarian and head of CRAS, told AFP: “We have been treating Rio’s wildlife here for 22 years, and I have never before received a capybara subjected to such extreme aggression.”

He said the creature was doing better, but was “suffering from head trauma, swelling with internal bleeding around his left eye, and multiple injuries to his back”.

In recent years the semi-aquatic capybara – native to South America – has gained a devoted following online. One popular meme is “Comrade Capybara”, depicting the animal as a communist revolutionary, inspired by the 2021 “invasion” by capybaras of a luxury gated estate in Argentina that was built on a wetland that had been their natural habitat.

In early January, the death of a stray dog after it was beaten to death by teenagers caused a wave of outrage in Brazil.