Capybara

Language English

Onglets

Description

Distinguishing features

A capybara, the world's largest rodent, looks like a giant guinea pig. It has a large rectangular head with large brown eyes and a blunt muzzle.

It has short, stiff, beige fur and a barely visible tail. Its front feet have four toes and the hind feet have three. As well, its feet are partially webbed, useful for swimming and for supporting its enormous weight on muddy riverbanks.

Reproduction

Capybaras mate before the rainy season, with the dominant male mating in the water with all the females in the group.

Gestation lasts 120 to 150 days. Females bear litters of 2 to 8 offspring. The young weigh 1.5 kg at birth and are strong enough to walk straight away and to eat plants. They do nurse for 15 or 16 weeks, however, before they are weaned. All the females in the group help to care for the young.

These mammals reach sexual maturity at 18 months.

Diet

Capybaras feed mainly on aquatic plants, such as water hyacinths, and on leaves, bark and grasses alongside the rivers, lakes and marshes where they live.

They have chisel-like incisors that grow continuously. They also have 2 large molars on the top and bottom jaw. Their teeth do not meet exactly, which means that when they use their incisors to graze on vegetation, their molars are inactive, and when they use their molars to grind their food, their incisors rest.

Predators

Their natural enemies are anacondas, caimans, harpy eagles, jaguars, ocelots, pumas and especially humans, who hunt them for their meat and to prevent them from eating their crops.

Capybaras are very fast runners. When frightened by a predator, they call out to warn others and dive straight into the water. Only their nostrils, eyes and ears can be seen through the floating plants.

They can often be seen sunning themselves on a riverbank near a caiman, however, because these crocodilians never attack on land.

Habitat

This rodent frequents wooded riverbanks, lakeshores and the edges of marshes of South America, from Colombia to Argentina.

Ecology, behaviour

In the wild, capybaras hide in dense shrubbery. They live in mixed groups of about twenty individuals with one large, dominant male.

During the dry season, groups of more than 100 congregate around water sources. They use different noises to communicate with each other, from barking to whistling, grunting and clicking. They also communicate by means of scent. The males use the secretions produced by a gland in their muzzles to mark their territory.

In the wild, birds can often be seen perched on capybaras' backs.

French name

Capybara, cabiaï

Scientific name

Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Mammalia

Order

Rodents

Family

Hydrochoeridae

Size

Length: 100 to 130 cm; height (shoulder): 50 to 60 cm

Weight

Male: 35 to 65 kg ; female: 35 to 68 kg

Life span

In the wild: 8 to 10 years; in captivity: 12 years

Status

Common species

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