Capybara
As a capybara you would be the largest rodent on the planet – and spend most of your day eating grass, soaking in water and letting birds sit on your back.
A giant guinea-pig relative
The capybara, Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris, lives across much of South America east of the Andes, from Venezuela to northern Argentina, wherever there is water: rivers, lakes, marshes, flooded savannas such as the Venezuelan Llanos and Brazil’s Pantanal. Adults weigh around 35–65 kg and stand about half a metre tall at the shoulder. Your closest relatives are guinea pigs and cavies.
You would be built for semi-aquatic life: partly webbed toes, eyes, ears and nostrils set high on the head like a hippo’s, and the ability to stay underwater for several minutes to escape danger.
Grazing and group living
Capybaras are grazers, eating mainly grasses and aquatic plants, often several kilograms a day. Like rabbits, they practise coprophagy, eating some of their own droppings in the morning to digest cellulose a second time and extract more nutrients. Your teeth grow continuously to cope with the wear.
You would live in a group, typically 10–20 animals led by a dominant male, with several females and young. Group members communicate with barks, whistles, purrs and clicks. Capybaras are famously tolerant of other species: birds such as cattle tyrants and caracaras pick ticks from their skin, and other animals often rest beside them.
Predators and people
Their calm image hides a dangerous life. Jaguars, pumas, caimans, anacondas and, for young, large birds of prey and foxes hunt capybaras. They are also hunted and farmed by people for meat and leather. In parts of Brazil, capybaras have moved into city parks and riversides, where they can carry ticks involved in spreading Brazilian spotted fever. A female gives birth to an average of about four young after a pregnancy of roughly five months; in the wild capybaras usually live 8–10 years.
