The capybara inhabits a variety of lowland habitats close to water, ranging from rivers and lakes in rainforest, to marshes, brackish wetlands, swamps, and seasonally flooded grassland and savanna (2) (3) (4) (5). Suitable capybara habitat needs a mixture of water, dry ground and pasture (5), and habitat use may change seasonally to follow the availability of these resources (8). The capybara is most numerous on the seasonally flooded grasslands of the Llanos in Venezuela and Colombia, and the Pantanal of Brazil (2) (5), giving it its common name, which translates as “master of the grasses” (6) (7).