Random Magical Facts About the Life of the Capybara (16 items)

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  (#9) Capybara Communities Swell And Shrink Throughout The Year

  During the wet season when food is more readily available, capybaras tend to live in groups of about 10-30 members. When the dry season comes around, food becomes more scarce and capybara communities can swell to around 100 members as they all gather around available water sources.
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  (#15) Pregnant Capybaras Have A Typical 120-Day Gestation Period

  When pregnant, capybara mothers gestate young over a four-month period. Most commonly, capybara litters consist of about three pups. In rare cases, however, capybara mothers can give birth to as many as seven children.

  The two-to-three pound pups are born with teeth. They subsist on their mother’s milk for the first four months of their lives. By the time they’re 18 weeks old, young capybaras can grow to be as big as 88 pounds. After about a year, capybara pups leave their parents’ group to find a new community.
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  (#3) Capybaras Are Most Commonly Active At Dawn And Dusk

  When comfortable in their environment, capybaras act as crepuscular animals. This means they’re most often active at dawn and dusk, sleeping through the heat of the day and hiding out at night.

  Should they feel as though a threat is present, capybaras can also convert to completely nocturnal behavior in which they eat and socialize entirely at night.
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  (#1) Baby Capybaras Can't Swim

  Though the majority of their lives will ultimately be spent in the water, newborn capybaras are not very good swimmers. As a result, they spend their first several months living near the water, hidden by large brush.

  The entire capybara group works to nurse the young and protect them from harm. Baby capybaras nurse on every female in the community, and beta males work to stay vigilant to protect the group from harm.
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  (#8) How Can Capybaras Survive On Just A Grass Diet?

  Thanks to special digestive adaptations, capybaras are able to extract an incredible amount of nutrients from their grass-based diet: “A large fermentation chamber, or cecum, in their intestines stores and churns the fibrous materials while mixing in bacteria, enzymes, and gases that aid in digestion.”

  In addition, capybaras regurgitate their food three to four times during the eating process. They also eat their own droppings in order to ingest the highest possible percentage of nutrients. Talk about waste not, want not.
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  (#7) Capybaras Are Incredibly Picky Eaters

  Exclusively herbivores, capybara eat a small variety of aquatic plants and grasses. The little porkers eat about eight pounds of grass a day. In the wild, capybara have been spotted setting some species aside in favor of a handful of preferred grasses.

  When the environment turns dryer, capybaras will expand their diet to include a wider variety of plants and tree bark.

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