--- title: The capybara: the calmest animal, friend of crocodiles? — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «The capybara: the calmest animal, friend of crocodiles?», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: The capybara is the biggest rodent in the world, a giant cousin of the guinea pig as heavy as a grown man, that sp --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/42-the-capybara/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / The capybara: the calmest animal, frie… # The capybara: the calmest animal, friend of crocodiles? Lesson 42 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 16 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/42-the-capybara/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/42-the-capybara/0/) — The capybara is the biggest rodent in the world, a giant cousin of the guinea pig as heavy as a grown man, that spends its day chewing grass by South American rivers and ponds. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/42-the-capybara/1/) — It is famous for staying calm while birds, ducks and even monkeys sit on its back, and for photos of it resting right beside a basking caiman as if they were best friends. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/42-the-capybara/3/) — Caimans, cousins of alligators, sometimes do catch capybaras, mostly young ones, so the truth is calm, not friendship: a big capybara is a hard catch, a sunbathing caiman is not very hungry, and the capybara is ready to run. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/42-the-capybara/5/) — An adult capybara is the largest living rodent, up to about 60 kg, which is too big for most caimans; caimans mostly eat fish, snails, crabs and small animals. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/42-the-capybara/6/) — The famous photos are almost always of caimans, not true crocodiles, because capybaras live only in Central and South America, in wetlands such as the Pantanal. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/42-the-capybara/7/) — Caimans, especially the big black caiman, sometimes catch and eat capybaras, mostly young ones near the water; jaguars, anacondas and pumas hunt them too. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/42-the-capybara/8/) — Capybaras live in groups, often of about 10 to 20; some keep watch, and at a sharp bark-like alarm call the whole group rushes into the water, where they can stay under for about 5 minutes. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/42-the-capybara/9/) — Their eyes, ears and nostrils sit high on the head, like a hippo's, so a capybara can hide almost fully under water and still see, hear and breathe; it swims well with webbed toes. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/42-the-capybara/10/) — Birds such as cattle tyrants and yellow-headed caracaras ride on capybaras and eat ticks and flies; both gain, which scientists call mutualism, and the capybara may even lie still or roll over for them. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/42-the-capybara/11/) — In zoos capybaras let many animals sit on them, but zoo animals are well fed; some viral videos are staged, and in the wild a capybara can bite hard with its big front teeth. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/42-the-capybara/12/) — A capybara eats several kilograms of grass and water plants a day, because grass is tough and has little goodness in it; like all rodents its front teeth keep growing all its life and are worn down by chewing. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/42-the-capybara/13/) — To get every bit of goodness, capybaras eat some of their own soft droppings in the morning, so the food passes through the gut twice, as rabbits do. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/42-the-capybara/14/) — At Izu Shaboten Zoo in Japan, keepers have given capybaras warm baths in winter since the 1980s, and yuzu fruits are often floated in the water; capybaras come from warm places and love water. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/42-the-capybara/16/) — Caimans and crocodiles bask with their mouths open to let heat escape and cool down; it is not a threat or a yawn. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/42-the-capybara/17/) — A reptile does not burn food to keep warm, so a well-fed caiman may go days or even weeks without a big meal. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/42-the-capybara/18/) — Capybaras can sprint at about 35 km/h; in some Argentine towns they now graze on lawns and golf courses, where there is grass, water and no predators, so their numbers grow fast and they can eat gardens bare. - ← previous: [Counting animals: eyes, ears, hearts, trunks, tentacles, teeth](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/41-counting-animals/) - next →: [The platypus and the echidna: mammals that lay eggs](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/43-platypus-and-echidna/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)