Data from: Population estimate and spatial distribution of capybaras in Lake Paranoá, Brasília, Brazil

The capybara is the largest living rodent, attracting attention due to its
large size, its formation of large herds, and because it is commonly seen
in urban environments. Thus, understanding the dynamics of capybara
populations living in urban environments is relevant, especially given the
conflicts observed between the species and humans in these environments.
Here, we investigated the hypothesis of overpopulation of the capybara in
Lago Paranoá, a lake in a large neotropical city, Brasília, Brazil. To do
this, we investigated their spatial distribution at the site and estimated
the capybara population using a variation of the mark-recapture method and
compared it to known population estimates for the species. We found that
the capybaras in our study area mainly form small flocks of 1 to 9 animals
and occupy almost the entire shore of Lake Paranoá. We estimated the
occurrence of 0.30 to 0.52 ind./ha (average = 0.41 ind./ha), demonstrating
that the number of capybaras in our region is small when compared to
capybara counts in other regions (range 0.075 - 6.44 ind./ha).
Furthermore, we found that although the capybara population fluctuates
throughout the year, it appears to be stable, not supporting our initial
hypothesis. Urban areas can provide habitat for some species, which may
help offset negative effects of losses of unmanaged habitats; however,
this raises the possibility of wildlife-human conflicts