Capybaras (Hydrochoerus spp.) Fact Sheet: Diet & Feeding

Digestive system similar to rabbit's

• Simple stomach
• Large intestinal pouch (caecum) with microorganisms for fermenting cellulose
• Excrete two kinds of feces
  • Olive colored oval balls
  • Also colorless, protein rich "paste" which is re-ingested for maximum digestion of nutrients (= coprophagy)
• Regurgitate and re-chew food while resting

Front incisors crop native grasses too short for cattle

Selective grazers; eat approximately 3 kg/day fresh forage, mainly grasses

• Tend to be more selective when more plant species available
• 80% of diet is only 5 species of grasses (Poaceae)
• Most common plant species in areas typically the ones eaten most often, especially in winter when fewer species available
• Various estimates for amount of aquatic plants in diet from .6 % to 87 %
  • As wet season advances, more reeds and water hyacinths consumed

Capybaras raid cultivated fields for grains, melons, squashes, bananas, sweet potatoes, manioc leaves and corn

Image credit: Adrian Pingstone [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Barreto and Herrera (1998)
Borges & Colares
Nowak (1999)
Quintana et al (1998)