Page "Capybara" Paragraph 16

Capybaras are very gregarious.

While they do sometimes live solitarily, they are more commonly found in groups that average 10 – 20 individuals, with two to four adult males, four to seven adult females and the rest juveniles.

Capybara groups can consist of as many as 50 or 100 individuals during the dry season, when the animals gather around available water sources.

Males are organized in stable, linear hierarchies.

The dominant male in each group is significantly heavier than any of the subordinates, but among subordinates, status is not correlated with weight.

The dominant male is positioned in the center of the group while subordinates are on the periphery.

These hierarchies are established early in life among the young with play fights and mock copulations.

The most dominant males have access to the best resources.

Capybaras are very vocal and, when in groups, chatter with each other to establish social bonds, dominance or general group census.

They can make dog-like barks when threatened or when females are herding young.

Capybaras have two different scent glands ; a morillo, located on the snout, and an anal gland.

Both sexes have those glands, but males have larger morillos and their anal pockets can open more easily.

The anal glands of males are also lined with detachable hairs.

A crystalline form of scent secretion is coated on these hairs and are released when in contact with objects like plants.

These hairs have a longer-lasting scent mark and are tasted by other capybaras.

A capybara marks by rubbing its morillo on an object or by walking over a scrub and marking with its anal gland.

A capybara can spread its scent further by urinating.

However, females usually mark without urinating and mark less frequently than males overall.

Females mark more often during the wet season when they are in estrus.

In addition to objects, males will also mark females.