Confined and semi-confined production systems for capybaras

Abstract

In Latin-American countries capybaras are traditionally hunted for subsistence needs and/or the hide trade (Nogueira Neto 1973; Ojasti 1973; Robinson and Redford 1991). Environmental law in Brazil and other neotropical countries, such as Peru, Panama, and Paraguay, forbids commercial hunting (Ojasti 1996), but capybaras may be captured for use in captive breeding programs to produce meat and leather. Despite the strict legal framework, the species' high reproductive potential together with its behavioral characteristics - grass-eating, sedentarism, docility, and sociability - have encouraged breeding in captivity by research centers in several South American countries. Increased human demand for animal protein in Latin America (Nogueira Neto 1973; Ojasti 1973; Lavorenti 1989; González-Jiménez 1995), and for game meat, specifically in urban centers (Nogueira-Filho and Nogueira 2004), has led to the spread of capybara farming to provide a new food resource.