I assume you’re basing this question on pictures like this:
Day 17. I have infiltrated Mr Scales’ inner circle. They suspect nothing. (Image)
Ready the cavalry. We attack at dawn. (Image)
While it’s tempting to cry ‘fake’, there are plenty of examples of capybaras chilling next to caiman. There’s even a video here.
*Thanks to Quora’s plagiarism epidemic, I’ve started putting this sentence into the middle of my answers in case the lazy ***** that steal (and profit from) others’ work overlook it. This was written by Alex Cooper.*
I’m not a capybara expert, but I don’t think they would still exist if they simply had no survival instinct, especially with adept predators like jaguars and anacondas around.
And trust me, they would not be sitting calmly next to a jaguar.
If I had to guess, I would suggest capybaras are often so chilled around caiman because:
- The cold-blooded reptilians are still sluggish and warming themselves up.
- The caiman in these examples are simply too small to overpower a capybara. The largest caiman can reach over 4 metres in length and weigh a tonne — I don’t think capybaras would be quite so comfortable around crocodilians of that size.
- Caiman are far less dangerous out of the water and (I suppose) not in ‘hunting mode’. Many crocodilians also eat surprisingly rarely.
Larger caiman do prey on capybaras, so it’s a case of context. The capybaras would rather save their energy for a real life-or-death scenario. Smaller caiman would rather save their energy for some fish.