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Today on Animal Fact Files we’re talking about capybaras. Keep up with new episodes by subscribing, and thank you to Minachichi for today’s cute request. Capybaras are the largest living rodents in the world weighing and average of 110 pounds (50 kilograms) and reaching lengths of about four feet (1.2 meters). They’re closely related to guinea pigs, and they were even once thought to be related to pigs themselves - this has brought about one of the capybara’s common names: water pigs. This is giving me sea pig episode flashbacks. Capybaras are sometimes referred to as water pigs because they spend a large portion of their time in water. They might live in forests, grasslands, swamps, wetlands, and more, but water must be present in order for them to survive. Capybaras don’t only use water to drink and keep cool during the hottest parts of the day, they’ll also flee to water if they sense danger.

Capybaras live in family groups that are typically headed by a single dominant male and may contain anywhere from two to more than thirty members. The group communicates with a range of calls. These calls differ between groups, and the separate groups can be territorial - though they don’t seem to have a problem with birds sitting on them. A warning call may be giving to alert group members of a prowling jaguar, lurking caiman, or slithering anaconda. These predators would of course indicated that capybaras live in South America.

When not running from predators, capybaras spend a large portion of their active hours eating. They tend to be most active during cooler parts of the day and are often considered a crepuscular species. They’ll graze on grass and aquatic plants, and capybara’s have also been observed eating their own excrement. This is likely to help with digestion. See, capybaras are like sheep and cows and will regurgitate their food to chew it up a second time. They’ve also been observed to have protozoans in their guts that help break down the fibrous plants they consume. It’d be silly to let those helpful bacteria go to waste, so they don’t! If it seems gross, just remember that people eat capybaras, too - so which is grosser? Eating poop, or eating the poop eater?

Capybaras breed year round, but they tend to become more sexually active during wet seasons. The dominant male may have his choice among the females, but other males in the group will often get involved, as well. The females gestate for about five months and give birth to an average of four babies. The babies begin walking the day they’re born, and they can start eating grasses within a week - though they’ll continue drinking milk for their first three months of life. And they don’t just get their milk from their mother. All the female capybaras in a group will tend to the babies and nurse them. This makes child rearing less demanding on the individual mothers. In the wild, they can live to be ten years old, and, in captivity, they can be even older.

Here’s a fun fact we’ll leave you with today: because capybaras spend a lot of their time in water, they were considered to be fish by the 16th century Catholic Church; this allowed them to be eaten during lent.

For more facts on capybaras, check out the links in the description. Give a thumbs up if you learned something new today, and thank you for watching Animal Fact Files.