Capybaras are the world largest rodents and increasingly coexist with urban development in South America, creating both welfare opportunities and conflict challenges.
Urban capybara welfare involves navigation of genuine tensions between animal welfare and public health. Capybaras expanding into urban areas face vehicle strike risk, dog attack, and sometimes lethal removal by authorities responding to public complaints or disease vector concerns. Yet urban capybara groups that are left undisturbed often become habituated to humans and coexist peacefully, providing residents with remarkable wildlife experiences. Welfare-positive urban management educates residents about capybara ecology, manages tick habitats through vegetation management rather than capybara culling, and creates coexistence frameworks that allow capybara groups to maintain their social integrity. The key welfare principle is maintaining social group cohesion — removing or killing individuals fragments groups and causes ongoing social disruption.