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Animal Age

How old does a Capybara get? (age expectancy)

What is the maximal age a Capybara reaches?

An adult Capybara (Hydrochaeris hydrochaeris) usually gets as old as 12 years.

Capybaras are around 148 days in the womb of their mother. When born, they weight 1.5 kg (3.31 lbs) and measure 1.3 cm (0′ 1″). As a member of the Hydrochaeridae family (genus: Hydrochaeris), a Capybara caries out around 3 little ones per pregnancy, which happens around 1 times a year. Fully grown, they reach a bodylength of 1.22 meter (4′ 0″).

As a reference: Usually, humans get as old as 100 years, with the average being around 75 years. After being carried in the belly of their mother for 280 days (40 weeks), they grow to an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″) and weight in at 62 kg (137 lbs), which is obviously highly individual.

A Capybara gets as old as 12 years

The capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) is a giant cavy rodent native to South America. It is the largest living rodent in the world. Also called capivara (in Brazil), chigüire, chigüiro (in Colombia and Venezuela), carpincho (in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay) and ronsoco (in Peru), it is a member of the genus Hydrochoerus, of which the only other extant member is the lesser capybara (Hydrochoerus isthmius). Its close relatives include guinea pigs and rock cavies, and it is more distantly related to the agouti, the chinchilla, and the coypu. The capybara inhabits savannas and dense forests and lives near bodies of water. It is a highly social species and can be found in groups as large as 100 individuals, but usually lives in groups of 10–20 individuals. The capybara is not a threatened species, but it is hunted for its meat and hide and also for grease from its thick fatty skin.

Animals that reach the same age as Capybara

With an average age of 12 years, Capybara are in good companionship of the following animals:

Animals with the same number of babies Capybara

The same number of babies at once (3) are born by:

Weighting as much as Capybara

A fully grown Capybara reaches around 47.5 kg (104.72 lbs). So do these animals:

Animals as big as a Capybara

Those animals grow as big as a Capybara: