---Select Page--- Home Stats Social Communication Defense Mating Foraging and Feeding Farming Tidbits References Animal Behavior Home Page Biology Home Page Davidson College

Why not just call it a fish?

While most people might take one look at a capybara and consider this classification laughable, the Roman Catholic Church thought otherwise. The Roman Catholic Church has historically demanded that its adherents forgo the consumption of any form of meat besides fish during Lent. Europeans exploring Central and South America discovered that the capybara was similar to many of the richer meats they were familiar with such as chicken and pork. This discovery in hand, they realized they might have found a loophole and submitted a strange petition to the Church. Since the semi-aquatic capybara spends much of its day in the water, they argued that one could consider it a fish. Despite the fact that capybaras are no relation to fish, the Roman Catholic Church agreed to call it a fish and ever since then hundreds of people have eaten capybara during Lent. Because of this peculiarity, ranchers find it profitable to harvest and sell capybara in addition to their normal harvest of cattle and caiman during Lent. Almost 80 tons of capybara meat are collected annually, most of it during or immediately preceding Lent (Economist 1992).

What makes their hair look so prickley?

Capybaras aren't really as prickley as the one in the picture above might seem. They actually have coats of hair similar to a common house cat, if just somewhat coarser. What makes their hair seem so rough is that the hair on a capybara protrudes at a sharp angle, almost parallel to the skin itself (Pereira et al.). Additionally, the hair is clumped in groups of three or four, and these clumps are spaced relatively sparsely over the body (Pereira et al.). As such, a capybara's coat appears thin and rough. This thin coating of hair speed the drying process and may facilitate motion while the animal is submerged (Pereira et al.). Since we're on the subject of a capybara's skin: the epidermis itself is covered in folds of tissue, creating a much larger surface area which facilitates evaporative cooling and general heat exchange. Additionally, while the capybara has sweat glands all over its body, they are sparsely distributed and not particularly suited to general thermal cooling (Pereira et al.). Because of this dearth of sweat glands, capybaras are forced to wallow or swim to reduce their body temperature. While it may seem like this is a deficancy that might proove troublesome for a terrestrial creature, capybaras tend to spend so much time in the water that it does not usually become a problem.

Should we worry?

The capybara is not currently an endangered species. It was, however in danger of becoming such not too long ago. In addition to the value of capybara meat, capybara skin is excellent for glove making because it stretches in only one direction (Smith, 1981). The value of a capybara, in addition to the relative ease with which they could be harvested, resulted in the wholesale slaughter of thousands of these animals throughout Central and South America. It wasn't until fairly recently that most governments in the area enacted laws to protect these creatures (Smith, 1981). Poaching still occurs on a large scale, but a combination of increased enforcement of existing laws, embargoes on capybara products, and the rise of true capybara farming has begun to dramatically decrease the number of wild capybara killed each year.