Habits: Solitary, or in male-female pairs.
Head, back, and shoulders grey-black, with crest of black hairs on neck and shoulders contrasting rump bright orangish-red and covered with long erectile hairs belly grizzled grey tiny, inconspicuous tail. Makushi name: Akuri, Maikupiyu, Ewaropaimî, Iwoto, Kanskiîmî, Kusiwîĭescription: Medium-sized, long-legged rodent with large, rectangular head-rather like a short-eared rabbit on stilts. Status: Not recorded from Iwokrama, but is known from southwestern Guyana and probably will be found in the reserve. Signs: Tracks similar to, but less than half the size of, an agouti. Sometimes seen in gallery forest or forest bordering savannah. Occurs throughout the forest though most commonly seen near dense brush or forest edge. Calls include chirps, whistles, and squawks, and it often drums the feet in alarm. When alarmed, it bounds away quickly and then freezes, eventually circling back to the spot from which it was flushed. Feeds on seeds and fruit, and often buries individual seeds and nuts for later use. Long, thin legs and long hindfeet.Īctivity: Diurnal (most active in early morning or late afternoon), terrestrial. Short, thin tail white on underside and at tip (noticeable and much longer than an agouti). Relatively long ears compared to an agouti. Upperparts dark reddish-brown grading to reddish-orange on sides and legs, black on mid-back and rump rump with long erectile hairs belly orange. Size: body= 35 cm tail= 6 cm weight= 1.5 kgĭescription: Small-sized, ungulate-like rodent, similar to but smaller than an agouti. Signs: Relatively broad tracks (40 mm wide or more in adults) with four toes showing on the front track and three on the hind. Often seen as it forages for fruit on the forest floor and especially along creeks, streams, and rivers. Habits: Solitary or sometimes in male-female pairs. Bright red eyeshine.Īctivity: Terrestrial, nocturnal, it is often active late in the evening (midnight or later), especially in areas where it is frequently hunted (it is prized for its tasty flesh).
This is the second-largest rodent in Iwokrama. In this section we include the large rodents which weigh more than about 2 kilograms.ĭescription: Large bodied and stocky reddish-brown with four obvious lines or stripes of white spots from shoulder to rump on each side, and a very short, inconspicuous tail. Virginia Hayssen et al.Large rodents: Rodents are chisel-toothed mammals which are important fruit and seed consumers and dispersal agents.Ronald Nowak (1999), Walker's Mammals of the World.Ernest (2003), Life history characteristics of placental non-volant mammals.White and Seymour (2003), Mammalian basal metabolic rate is proportional to body mass2/3 (PubMed).
(2004), The predominance of quarter-power scaling in biology