Features

• In the wild, capybaras eat mostly grasses, water plants and aquatic plants. They also supplement their diet with fruit and with tree bark. Capybaras partially regurgitate their food and chew it, much like cows chew their cud.
  
  

Significance

• A capybara is herbivorous, meaning that it exclusively eats plants, but it is also considered a graminivore. A graminivore is an animal that primarily eats plants from the family Poaceae, which are known as the true grasses. Horses, giant pandas and hippopotamuses are also graminovores.
  
  

Time Frame

• The capybara is naturally a diurnal animal, and it will search for food during the day. However, in areas where they have become threatened by hunters, they will resort to searching for food at night, or at dawn and sunset.
  
  

Size

• An adult capybara needs to eat between 6 and 8 lbs. of food every day. This means that the wild capybara spends the vast portion of its waking time grazing for food.
  
  

Considerations

• The diet of the capybara is very high in cellulose. The cecum is a large fermentation chamber in the capybara's intestines that help it break down the cellulose. Capybaras will also eat their own feces to help digest the cellulose and to reintroduce lost nutrients to their body.