Esther Benenson, age 13, of Richmond, Virginia, for her question:
What are the habits of the capybara?
If somebody asks you to name the biggest member of the ratty rodent clan, tell them it is the capybara, who looks like a large, long legged bunny with a rounded nose and minus the floppy ears. He is as big as a pig and his webbed toes have mini hooves.
The capybara lives a very peaceable life down in South America. His huge range begins east of the Andes and extends all the way from Panama to Paraguay. He is a strict vegetarian and for reasons of health, must spend a good deal of his time in the water. His 14 toes have tiny hoofs and on land he trots like a fat little pony.
He looks like a giant cousin of the guinea pig and so he is. The capybara is a hunted animal. Jaguars hunt him through the woods around his favorite lakes and streams, caimans and alligators hunt him when he takes to the water. And his most dangerous enemy is man.
His only means of defense is escape. This may be one reason why this gentle character shares his life with 20 or so friends and relatives of assorted ages. They graze together, browse together and swim together, conversing among themselves in clicking sounds, high whistles and low grunts. Perhaps for safety's sake, they doze during the day and do their foraging at dawn and dusk. When the region is fraught with many foes, they stay out of sight until darkness falls.
An adult capybara may be four feet long and stand 21 inches high. Under his coarse, brownish gray coat are layers of stored, lightweight fat. In the water, he is so buoyant that he swims with hardly any effort at all.
Even when no jaguars prowl the woods, the capybara cannot stay on land all the time. His skin becomes dry and breaks out in sores. His digestion refuses to work and he cannot breed. So he has three good reasons to take to the water at least once every day to escape his enemies, to eat water weeds and simply to dunk his sensitive skin.
Usually he swims with just his eyes, ears and nostrils above the surface. When escaping, he swims a long way under water and surfaces out of sight among the water weeds. Often his group of gentle friends and relatives graze the grasses like cattle. But if one member senses danger, the whole troupe trots to water and disappears with hardly a ripple.
The female capybara carries her unborn babes for about four months. There are from two to eight in her litter and the well developed youngsters weigh two and a half pounds apiece. They look for all the world like long legged guinea pigs, all ready to go. They stay close to momma through their first year, until the next litter arrives. Barring accidents, the peaceable capybaras can expect to live about 12 years.