Capybaras (Hydrochoerus spp.) Fact Sheet: Population & Conservation Status

Population Trends

• Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris
  • Stable (Reid 2016)
• Hydrochoerus isthmius
  • Unknown (Delgado and Emmons 2016)

Status in all areas depends on management practices and habitat quality

• Some areas allow controlled harvest and tolerate subsistence hunting
• Elsewhere all hunting prohibited but poaching may be common
• Protections enforced in other areas
• Management for cattle may improve habitat for capybara
• Populations considered a potential nuisance in east central Sao Paulo Brazil where they often live near humans
  • Blamed for crop damage
  • Associated with Brazilian Spotted Fever

Population densities

• 195 individuals/sq. km (0.4 sq. mi) in southeastern Brazil wetlands
• Between 10 and 200 individuals/ sq. km.(0.4 sq mi) in Venezuelan Llanos

IUCN

• Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris
  • Least Concern (2016 assessment) (Reid 2016)
• Hydrochoerus isthmius
  • Data deficient (2016 assessment) (Delgado and Emmons 2016)

CITES

• Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris
  • Not listed (UNEP 2018)
• Hydrochoerus isthmius
  • Not listed (UNEP 2018)

History of protections

• 1953: Hunting regulated in Venezuela
• 1967: Hunting prohibited in Brazil (Federal Law No. 5.197) but harvesting being considered to reduce population densities and impact on agriculture in some areas
• 1968: Venezuela develops management plan using studies of capybara biology and ecology
• 1980: Hunting prohibited in Columbia
• 2000: Central Suriname Nature Reserve established on North Atlantic coast of South America; 1.592 million hectares ( 6,146 sq mi.)

  Status not threatened at present, but habitat loss and hunting/farming need controls and monitoring

• Predator declines due to habitat loss may offer short-term benefit to capybara populations
• Hunting often removes larger and older individuals from population (large males, pregnant females) and reduces group size
  • Long-term effect: decrease in body size of hunted population
  • Smaller groups mean fewer young survive per female
  • Hunting drives normally savanah-dwelling animals to forested habitats where resources are not optimal
• Encroachment of human development
• Clear-cutting/burning, farming
• Human perception of their role in competing with cattle for food, as pests of sugarcane and rice mono cultures, or as carriers of diseases

Moreira & Macdonald  (1996)
Ojasti (1991)
Verdade & Ferraz (2006)