But the weight of evidence was overwhelming: Not a single park visitor or staff member had registered any
agoutis in decades, despite the fact that pacas--much less conspicuous rodents --were regularly observed in Tijuca.
Forty-three pregnant female
agoutis, aging between 2-4 years, were individually housed with their young in wire mesh cages (0.6m wide x 0.6m deep x 0.9m high) over a period of 10 months in 2014 at the
Agouti Unit, Department of Food Production, Faculty of Food and Agriculture, The University of the West Indies, St.
(2010) followed the dispersal of a large-seeded palm (Astrocaryum standleyanum) by Central American
agoutis (Dasyprocta punctata).
The black-rumped
agoutis (Dasyprocta prymnolopha) were born in captivity, at a wildlife paddock of the Federal University of Para, Belem, Brazil (1[degrees]27'21"S-48[degrees]30'14" W).
Home range, population density, and food resources of
Agouti paca (Rodentia: Agoutidae) in Costa Rica: a study using alternative methods.--Biotropica 31: 675-685.
The choice of species was based on Brazilian and Peruvian Amazon studies confirming the preference of hunters for peccaries, deer,
agoutis and pacas (Redford and Robinson, 1987; Bodmer et al., 1997; Hurtado-Gonzales and Bodmer, 2004).
The refreshed enclosure will ultimately feature a pair of sloths, set to arrive from Germany,
agoutis and leaf-cutter ants, as well as four South American jaguars.
During this program, 269 capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella), 27 black-howling monkeys (Allouata caraya), 12 coatis (Nasua nasua), 20
agoutis (Dasyprocta sp.), 2 opossums (Didelphis albiventris), 5 armadillos (Euphractus sexcinctus), 5 collared anteaters (Tamandua tetradactila), and 4 gray foxes (Cerdocyon thous) were captured.
Seeds that remain inside fruits will eventually rot whereas those buried by
agoutis often germinate and grow before the animal gets back to them.
While some of the species that suddenly appeared are related to the
agoutis and spiny rats that live in South America today, others belong to extinct lineages, says Wertheim.
Monkeys, bats, coat-imundis,
agoutis, wild boar, ocelots, anteaters, salamanders, vines, orchids and other epiphytes are some of the living things that frequent and flourish on shade-grown coffee farms, which some experts call "agroforests." In recent years, however, much of the scientific community's interest has focused on the feathered denizens of the farms.
When the fruits fall to the ground, humans and large rodents called
agoutis compete for the harvest.
In the United States, we purchase shrink-wrapped chicken breasts from the supermarket; in Nassian, men trap bush rats and
agoutis in their fields and bring them home strapped to the back of bikes.