Capybara  (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris)

Range

The capybara occurs over much of South America, to the east of the Andes, from Colombia and Venezuela south to northern Argentina (1) (3) (4).

View a distribution map for this species at UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre.

Habitat

The capybara inhabits a variety of lowland habitats close to water, ranging from rivers and lakes in rainforest, to marshes, brackish wetlands, swamps, and seasonally flooded grassland and savanna (2) (3) (4) (5). Suitable capybara habitat needs a mixture of water, dry ground and pasture (5), and habitat use may change seasonally to follow the availability of these resources (8). The capybara is most numerous on the seasonally flooded grasslands of the Llanos in Venezuela and Colombia, and the Pantanal of Brazil (2) (5), giving it its common name, which translates as “master of the grasses” (6) (7).

left