It is hard to guess what a Lesser capybara weights. But we have the answer:
An adult Lesser capybara (Hydrochoerus isthmius) on average weights 21.27 kg (46.89 lbs).
The Lesser capybara is from the family Caviidae (genus: Hydrochoerus). When reaching adult age, they grow up to 1.21 meter (4′ 0″). Usually, Lesser capybaras have 4 babies per litter.
As a reference: An average human weights in at 62 kg (137 lbs) and reaches an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″). Humans spend 280 days (40 weeks) in the womb of their mother and reach around 75 years of age.
The lesser capybara (Hydrochoerus isthmius) is a large semiaquatic rodent of the family Caviidae found in eastern Panama, northwestern Colombia, and western Venezuela. The lesser capybara was described as a species in 1912, but later demoted to a subspecies of the capybara (H. hydrochaeris). Following studies of anatonomy and genetics in the mid-1980s, it was recommended that it again should be recognized as a separate species, and this gained more widespread recognition in 1991, although some continue to consider it a subspecies.The lesser capybara closely resembles the capybara, but adults of the former species typically weigh up to about 28 kg (62 lb), while adults of the latter species weigh at least 35 kg (77 lb) and often much more. The lesser capybara breeds year-round, with an average litter size of 3.5. Individuals may be diurnal or nocturnal and solitary or social depending on season, habitat, and hunting pressure. This species is reported to be common in Panama, but rare in Venezuela. It is threatened by subsistence hunting, the destruction of gallery forests, and swamp drainage, specifically that of the Magdalena River. Its karyotype has 2n = 64 and FN = 104, compared to 2n = 66 and FN = 102 for H. hydrochaeris.
Animals of the same family as a Lesser capybara
We found other animals of the Caviidae family:
- Andean mountain cavy with a weight of 255 grams
- Brazilian yellow-toothed cavy with a weight of 450 grams
- Common yellow-toothed cavy with a weight of 387 grams
- Shiny guinea pig with a weight of 283 grams
- Chacoan mara bringing 1.61 kilos (3.55 lbs) to the scale
- Montane guinea pig bringing 1 kilos (2.2 lbs) to the scale
- Greater guinea pig with a weight of 460 grams
- Capybara bringing 48.14 kilos (106.13 lbs) to the scale
- Patagonian mara bringing 8.03 kilos (17.7 lbs) to the scale
- Spix’s yellow-toothed cavy with a weight of 361 grams
Animals with the same weight as a Lesser capybara
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Hydrochoerus isthmius:
- African clawless otter with a weight of 19.16 kilos (42.24 lbs)
- Ogilby’s duiker with a weight of 18.29 kilos (40.32 lbs)
- Roe deer with a weight of 22.45 kilos (49.49 lbs)
- Bornean yellow muntjac with a weight of 18.87 kilos (41.6 lbs)
- Black duiker with a weight of 19 kilos (41.89 lbs)
- Cameroon clawless otter with a weight of 21.6 kilos (47.62 lbs)
- Eurasian beaver with a weight of 19 kilos (41.89 lbs)
- Hairy-fronted muntjac with a weight of 18.45 kilos (40.68 lbs)
- North American beaver with a weight of 18.11 kilos (39.93 lbs)
- Goa (antelope) with a weight of 23.13 kilos (50.99 lbs)
Animals with the same litter size as a Lesser capybara
Here is a list of animals that have the same number of babies per litter (4) as a Lesser capybara: