Capybaras are semi-aquatic, highly social rodents from South American wetlands. Their welfare in zoo settings requires appropriate group housing, water access, and warm climates.
Capybara welfare is fundamentally a social and aquatic issue. Solitary housing denies the group social behaviour that dominates their natural life; inadequate water access prevents the thermoregulation and social bathing that are core behaviours. Group management is complex — capybaras maintain dominance hierarchies that, if disrupted, cause fighting and injury. Temperature management is welfare-critical in temperate climates; hypothermic capybaras rapidly develop health problems. The increasing trend of keeping capybaras as exotic pets in temperate countries creates welfare concerns — their social, space, aquatic, and climate requirements are very difficult to meet outside accredited zoo settings, and solitary pet keeping is a welfare failure for this highly social species.