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
