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Capybara

Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris · medium

The capybara is the largest rodent in the world, roughly the size of a large dog, and it is built for water. Its eyes, ears and nostrils sit high on the head so it can stay almost entirely submerged, its feet are partly webbed, and it will drop into a river and remain under for minutes when threatened by a jaguar or an anaconda.

It lives in groups, sometimes large ones, structured around a dominant male and held together by a range of whistles, clicks and purrs. Much of the day is spent grazing on grasses and aquatic plants — a diet so hard to extract nutrition from that capybaras re-ingest their own droppings to pass the material through a second time, and grind their continuously growing teeth down on abrasive stems.

Their reputation for placidity is not entirely internet invention. Capybaras tolerate the close presence of other animals to an unusual degree, and birds, monkeys and turtles are regularly photographed sitting on them, apparently untroubled either way.

They range widely across South America wherever there is permanent water with grazing beside it, and they remain common — one of the few large wetland animals not currently in decline across most of its range.

Where it lives

Worml lists the capybara as native to 11 countries — Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela. Its habitat is wetland, flooded grassland and riverbank.

Ranges here are reduced to whole countries for playability and exclude introduced populations — see about the data for what that simplification leaves out.

In the game

Capybara is rated medium. To solve the round you need to find any 6 of its 11 listed countries. How scoring works →

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