Morphometric Patterns and Blood Biochemistry of Capybaras (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) from Human-Modified Landscapes and Natural Landscapes in Brazil

Benatti, Hector Ribeiro; Luz, Hermes Ribeiro; Lima, Daniel Magalhães; Goncalves, Vinicius de Souza; Costa, Francisco Borges; Aguiar, Daniel Moura de; Pacheco, Richard C.; Piovezan, Ubiratan; Szabó, Matias Pablo Juán; Ferraz, Kátia Maria Paschoaletto Micchi de Barros; Labruna, Marcelo Bahia

doi:10.3390/vetsci8080165

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Together with the capybaras from PN, which is an area in Pantanal with low availability of C 4 resources, these two populations presented the highest consumption of C 3 plants, and the lowest mean δ 15 N values, suggesting that C 3 ‐based diets may have low protein content. This change in diet composition may be reflected in the body mass of the individuals, which is lower in natural environments compared with anthropized ones, possibly related to fat deposits (Benatti et al, 2021). Nonetheless, we did not find any relationship between species body mass and isotopic values.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the elevated consumption of exotic food items may have dire consequences for the species' health, such as weight increase, high fat deposits on internal organs, and metabolic alterations (Benatti et al, 2021). The increase of capybara populations in anthropized environments, particularly urban and peri‐urban areas, also increases the odds of accidents due to wildlife‐vehicle collisions (Magioli, Bovo, et al, 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The capybara occurs across most of South America, from the east of the Andes in Colombia to northwestern and eastern Argentina, and is a semiaquatic organism, found close to rivers, streams, estuaries, and marshes, in both natural and human‐modified landscapes (Reid, 2016). This rodent of unusual size, when compared with most rodent species, has an adult mean weight of 50 kg (Paglia et al, 2012), but some individuals can weigh up to 105 kg (Benatti et al, 2021), especially those inhabiting agricultural landscapes. The capybara is an herbivorous grazer, that is, that feeds mainly on grasses and other herbaceous vegetation (Moreira et al, 2013) but is also known to raid C 4 crops, such as sugarcane and corn (Ferraz et al, 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Plasticity in resource use explains the persistence of the largest living rodent in anthropized environments

et al. 2023

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How organisms search for and obtain food is a determinant of their survival. It has been hypothesized that organisms facing food limitations might expand their dietary niche compared with optimal foraging conditions. Nonetheless, some organisms may reduce their dietary niche due to limiting resources. Here, we show the resource use plasticity of capybaras (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris), the largest living rodent, in natural and anthropized environments of Brazil using stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes in hair. We assessed the resource use, size and overlap of isotopic niches, and the influence of body mass, age class, sex, and landscape composition on isotopic values among 13 capybara populations (210 individuals). We observed a wide variation in isotopic values of capybaras among and within populations in different environments. Surprisingly, diets varied from strictly C4‐based to strictly C3‐based, with most individuals feeding on C4 plants (65%). A substantial portion of individuals presented mixed diets (C3 and C4 plants), totaling 31% of the individuals, and few fed exclusively on C3 plants (4%). Isotopic niche size also varied among populations in both environments, with low overlap considering their core dietary niche. Capybara populations in natural environments had substantial incorporation of C3 resources, showing individuals with strictly C3 diets, and possibly relying on a high diversity of food items, while some populations in anthropized ones fed exclusively on C4 resources. Neither body mass, age class, sex, nor landscape composition significantly influenced isotopic values. Here, we provide evidence of the dietary plasticity of capybaras in different environments, transitioning from the consumption of C4 to C3 plants when needed, that is, from preferred to non‐preferred food items. Together with the species' behavioral plasticity, our results help explain its resilience in surviving, and even thriving, in both natural and human‐modified environments.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Plasticity in resource use explains the persistence of the largest living rodent in anthropized environments

et al. 2023

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Forage ecology of Neotropical fish in Brazilian biomes using stable isotopes

Martinelli,

Augusto,

Abdalla Filho

et al. 2024

Science of The Total Environment

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Island biogeography theory provides a plausible explanation for why larger vertebrates and taller humans have more diverse gut microbiomes

Ramos Sarmiento,

Carr,

Diener

et al. 2024

The ISME Journal

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Prior work has shown a positive scaling relationship between vertebrate body size, human height, and gut microbiome alpha diversity. This observation mirrors commonly observed species area relationships (SAR) in many other ecosystems. Here, we expand these observations to several large data sets, showing that this size-diversity scaling relationship is independent of relevant covariates, like diet, body mass index, age, sex, bowel movement frequency, antibiotic usage, and cardiometabolic health markers. Island biogeography theory (IBT), which predicts that larger islands tend to harbor greater species diversity through neutral demographic processes, provides a simple mechanism for positive SARs. Using gut-adapted IBT model, we demonstrated that increasing the length of a flow-through ecosystem led to increased species diversity, closely matching our empirical observations. We delve into the possible clinical implications of these SARs in the American Gut cohort. Consistent with prior observations that lower alpha diversity is a risk factor for Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI), we found that individuals who reported a history of CDI were shorter than those who did not and that this relationship was mediated by alpha diversity. We observed that vegetable consumption had a much stronger association with CDI history, which was also partially mediated by alpha diversity. In summary, we find that the positive scaling observed between body size and gut alpha diversity can be plausibly explained by a gut-adapted IBT model, may be related to CDI risk, and vegetable intake appears to independently mitigate this risk, although additional work is needed to validate the potential disease risk implications.

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Morphometric Patterns and Blood Biochemistry of Capybaras (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) from Human-Modified Landscapes and Natural Landscapes in Brazil

Cited by 4 publications

References 70 publications

Plasticity in resource use explains the persistence of the largest living rodent in anthropized environments

Plasticity in resource use explains the persistence of the largest living rodent in anthropized environments

Forage ecology of Neotropical fish in Brazilian biomes using stable isotopes

Island biogeography theory provides a plausible explanation for why larger vertebrates and taller humans have more diverse gut microbiomes

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