Common Name: Capybara Scientific Name: Hydrochaeris Hydrochaeris
LOWER RISK Capybara Distribution: South America
Habitat: Various Height: Approx. 100cm Weight: Up to 70kg Diet: Herbivorous
The Capybara is the world’s largest rodent. It has a light brown coat and has its nostrils, eyes and ears are all positioned on top of it’s head. This is because Capybara spend a lot of time in the water and it needs to look out for predators whilst swimming. To help it swim it has webbed toes making the Capybara an excellent swimmer and diver. The range of the Capybara covers much of South America east of the Andes down to south Uruguay where they inhabit densely vegetated areas around ponds, lakes, rivers, marshes and swamps. In areas with few people the Capybara is active in the morning and evening, but in more populated areas it has become nocturnal. The Capybara has no specific den but prefers to nest in grass thickets during the midday heat and at night. The diet of a Capybara, based up on water based vegetation and grasses. Water plants, young buds and soft tree bark are eaten in the day and fresh grass in the evening. The Capybara can be found in several types of social groupings, these range from simple male-female pairings, parents and young and then larger mixed groups, which consists of many individuals but with one male that is dominant over all the females in that group. Capybara usually only breed once a year, and have a gestation period of 5 months with up to 8 young being given birth to.