AnimalvsAnimal
Capybara walking with Pink Ipê trees in the background in Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas, Brazil🐹

Photo: Giles Laurent · CC BY-SA 4.0

SpeciesRodentiaCaviidae
Mammals

🐹Capybara

Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris (Linnaeus, 1766)

Das Capybara oder Wasserschwein (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) ist eine Säugetierart aus der Familie der Meerschweinchen (Caviidae). Es bildet gemeinsam mit dem Panama-Capybara (Hydrochoerus isthmius) die Gattung Hydrochoerus und ist das größte heute lebende Nagetier. Es bewohnt feuchte Regionen in Südamerika und ist vom Körperbau seiner semiaquatischen (teilweise im Wasser stattfindenden) Lebensweise angepasst.

Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Videos
193
Photos
6
Measurements
14
vs you
≈ half your weight
Conservation status
LCLeast concern

IUCN Red List assessment, 2016.

Population trendStable
Key measurements
Body mass
52 kg
Body length
1.25 m
Shoulder height
0.57 m
Top speed
not recorded
Bite force
not recorded
Maximum lifespan
15 years
All measurements ↓
Facts and figures

Everything we know about the Capybara

Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.

Body mass
52 kg
COMBINE
Other figures ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Figures vary

  • 55 kgAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: high
Body length
1.25 m
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Shoulder height
0.57 m0.5–0.62 m · typical rangeat withers
Details ↓

"height at withers, 566 (500 to 620, n = 92)" (mm) - mean and extremes for 92 Llanos animals; sex not stated. ADW gives a consistent "standing up to 0.6 meters at the shoulder".

Source: Mones & Ojasti 1986, Mammalian Species 264:1-7 (data of Ojasti 1973, Llanos population), https://doi.org/10.2307/3503784 · see citation

Brain mass
67 g
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Maximum lifespan
15 years
COMBINE
Other figures ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Figures vary

  • 15 yearsAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: high
Generation length
5.56 years
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Age at maturity
1.6 years
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Gestation
151 days
COMBINE
Other figures ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Figures vary

  • 150 daysAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: high
Litter size
about 3
COMBINE
Other figures ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Figures vary

  • 4.8AnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: high
Trophic level
Herbivore
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Activity cycle
Diurnal
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Home range
0.07 km²
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Population density
7.01 per km²
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Volume l
52 Laverage
Details ↓

Body mass at ~1.0 kg/L, the density of vertebrate tissue.

average = a mean across sexes or species in a group.

Not recorded for Capybara yet: top speed, bite force.

More

More about the Capybara

Closest relative on this site
🐭 Guinea pig — last shared an ancestor ≈ 17 million years ago.
Watch them together →
What it eats
leaves, roots and other plants90%
fruit10%
In other languages
kapibara wielka (pl), Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris (es), vízidisznó (hu), Καπιμπάρα (el), Kapybara (sv), capibara (nl) … and 27 more languages

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Echtes Filmmaterial von den Tieren dieser Website – beim Jagen, beim Kämpfen und beim ganz normalen Alltag.

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