Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York. All rights are reserved. When the Iberian colonists arrived in South America in the late fifteenth century, they encountered a diverse and previously unimagined fauna. The unusual anatomy and behavior of these species intrigued the early explorers. In their reports they named the new-found endemic animals after the most analogous European species. In 1576, for example, Pero de Gândavo (2004) described the capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) as a type of pig. However, capybaras were sufficiently unlike any known European species for most explorers to simply adopt a phonetic representation of the local name. Therefore, in 1557, the capybara was called catiuare by the German Hans Staden (1557), capiyûára in 1560 by the Spaniard José de Anchieta (1997), and capijuara in 1625 by the Portuguese Fernão Cardim (1980). The name capybara actually originates from a word in the indigenous Tupi, which in the sixteenth century was the most widely spread language in South America: kapii'gwara meaning grass eater (ka'pii = grass + gwara = eater; Houaiss et al. 2004).

Original publication

DOI

10.1007/978-1-4614-4000-0_1

Type

Chapter

Book title

Capybara: Biology, Use and Conservation of an Exceptional Neotropical Species

Publication Date

01/03/2013

Volume

9781461440000

Pages

3 - 37