Creature Feature: The biggest rodent in the world
28 Jul
Order: Rodentia
Family: Caviidae
Genus: Hydrochoerus
Species: H. hydrochaeris
Weighing in at an impressive 55 kilograms, and holding the record for the largest living rodent, the capybara is a far stretch from your average pet guinea pig (in fact if you look up oversized in the dictionary you might just find a photo of this curious-looking creature!). A herbivore, these animals feed mostly on grasses, aquatic plants, fruits and tree bark. Capybaras have also been known to chew on their regurgitated food (similar to cud-chewing ruminants like cows or antelope).
As if that isn’t strange enough, they are also coprophagous (a scientific term that basically means ‘they eat their own poo’). While this may seem disgusting to us, it’s hugely helpful for the capybara and is actually a fairly common practice amongst a number of animals species such as rabbits and hamsters. In the case of the capybara, their faeces are a source of bacterial gut flora, which helps them digest the cellulose found in grass and allows them to extract vital protein from their food. Capybaras are semi-aquatic mammals and usually begin grazing in the late afternoon when it is cooler and they will continue eating through the night. They don’t sleep very much – a little doze between evening wallows is enough to keep them going.
So where are you likely to come across one of these massive rodents? Your best bet is to hang around the watercourses of South America. Capybaras are highly adapted to an aquatic lifestyle and even mate in the water. They have slightly webbed feet which provides them with more stability when moving around on the slippery river banks and prevents them from sinking too deeply into the mud. In addition to this useful adaptation, the eyes, ears and nose of the capybara are situated on the top of its head, enabling it to hear, see and smell whilst submerged beneath the water.
If you’re interested in seeing more of these huge herbivores, check them out in the video below:
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