Caplin Rous Capybara

• Diet and predation
Capybaras are herbivores, grazing mainly on grasses and aquatic plants, as well as fruit and tree bark. An adult capybara will eat 6 to 8 pounds (2.7 to 3.6 kg) of grasses per day. Capybara are very selective feeders with four to six plant species making 75% of its diet. They will select the leaves of one species and disregard other species surrounding it. Capybaras eat a greater variety of plants during the dry season as there are fewer plants available. While they eat grass during the wet season, they have to switch to reeds during the dry season as they are more abundant. Plants that capybaras eat during the summer lose their nutritional value in the winter and the thus not consumed at that time. The capybara's jaw hinge is non-perpendicular and they thus chew food by grinding back and forth rather than side-to-side. Capybaras are coprophagous, meaning they eat their own feces as a source of bacterial gut flora and to help digest the cellulose in the grass that forms their normal diet and extract the maximum protein from their food. They may also regurgitate food to masticate again, similar to cud-chewing by a cow.
Like its cousin the guinea pig, the capybara does not have the capacity to synthesize vitamin C, and capybaras unsupplemented with vitamin C in captivity have been reported to develop gum disease as a sign of scurvy.
They can have a life span of 8–10 years in the wild but average a life less than four years as they are "a favourite food of jaguar, puma, ocelot, eagle and caiman". The capybara is also the preferred prey of the anaconda. Capybara are farmed for meat and skins in South America. It is widely believed that capybara were declared by Papal Bull to be fish so they may be eaten during Lent. Because of this belief, poaching increases during the period right before Easter.