Capybara

The capybara is a herbivore with a diurnal activity pattern and a terrestrial lifestyle. Gestation lasts 150 days, a litter has 4 young, and it reaches sexual maturity at 1.3 years; its lifespan is 12 years, with values up to 15.1 years, and the IUCN lists it as Least Concern.

Weight

48.1 kg – 58.6 kgsrc for Weight

Length

Not recorded

Lifespan

12 years – 15.1 yearssrc for Lifespan

Diet

Herbivoresrc for Diet

Main food

Not recorded

Habitat

forest, freshwater, grasslandsrc for Habitat

Gestation

150 dayssrc for Gestation

Young per litter or clutch

3.49 – 4src for Young per litter or clutch

Age at maturity

15 monthssrc for Age at maturity

Litters or clutches a year

1.25src for Litters or clutches a year

Active

By day (diurnal)src for Active

Lifestyle

Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle

Conservation status

Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status

Countries on record

Not recorded

Not recorded

The capybara is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.

1. LCLeast Concern
2. NTNear Threatened
3. VUVulnerable
4. ENEndangered
5. CRCritically Endangered
6. EWExtinct in the Wild
7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.

1. kingdomAnimalia
2. phylumChordata
3. classMammalia
4. orderRodentia
5. familyCaviidae
6. genusHydrochoerus
7. SpeciesHydrochoerus hydrochaeris (Linnaeus, 1766)

Synonyms Hydrochaeris hydrochaeris, Hydrochoeris hydrochaeris, Hydrochoerus capybara, Sus hydrochaeris

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistTAXREFWikidataIUCN Red List

CompareCapybara vs Lesser capybaraCapybara vs Hydrochoerus hesperotiganites

• An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
  Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1
• Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
  Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf
• Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
  Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence).
• EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
  Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1
• Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
  Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service).
• Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
  Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).

@misc{capybara_2026,
  title = {Capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/capybara},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}