Mexican hairy dwarf porcupine

Last updated

Mexican hairy dwarf porcupine
Mexican-hairy-porcupine-1.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Erethizontidae
Genus: Coendou
Species:
C. mexicanus
Binomial name
Coendou mexicanus
(Kerr, 1792)

The Mexican hairy dwarf porcupine or Mexican tree porcupine (Coendou mexicanus) is a species of rodent in the family Erethizontidae. [2] It is found in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Mexico, Nicaragua and Belize. [3]

Contents

This species was formerly sometimes assigned to Sphiggurus, [2] a genus no longer recognized since genetic studies showed it to be polyphyletic. [4] Its closest relatives are the Andean porcupine (Coendou quichua) and the stump-tailed porcupine (Coendou rufescens). [4]

Description

This porcupine has a pale head and a dark-coloured body. The head-and-body length ranges between about 320 and 457 mm (12.6 and 18.0 in), with a tail ranging from 200 to 358 mm (8 to 14 in). The maximum weight is about 2.6 kg (6 lb). This porcupine is covered with short yellowish spines but these are almost entirely obscured by the long black hair on the body. [5] Sometimes the spines on the shoulders and back are visible projecting through the hairs. By contrast, the head is hairless, revealing the yellowish spines. The snout is pink, broad and bulbous, and the eyes are small. The tail is prehensile, spiny and broad at the base, tapering to a point. This porcupine differs from Rothschild's porcupine (Coendou rothschildi) in that Rothschild's is more obviously spiny and lacks the hairy coat. [5]

Ecology

An arboreal species, it uses its prehensile tail to hold onto branches. [5] It is nocturnal and is usually more active on dark nights. The day is spent in a hollow tree, concealed on a leafy branch, or in highland areas, in a clump of bamboos. As it uses the same hiding place each day, a pile of droppings accumulates which produces a strong odour. The diet consists of buds, young leaves, fruits and seeds. It particularly favours fruiting trees such as Inga , Cecropia , Ficus and Brosimum . Individuals normally live alone and are silent, but in the breeding season it is more vocal, emitting screams and yowls. The female usually bears a single offspring. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Porcupine</span> Rodent with a coat of sharp spines

Porcupines are large rodents with coats of sharp spines, or quills, that protect them against predation. The term covers two families of animals: the Old World porcupines of the family Hystricidae, and the New World porcupines of the family Erethizontidae. Both families belong to the infraorder Hystricognathi within the profoundly diverse order Rodentia and display superficially similar coats of rigid or semi-rigid quills, which are modified hairs composed of keratin. Despite this, the two groups are distinct from one another and are not closely related to each other within the Hystricognathi. The largest species of porcupine is the third-largest living rodent in the world, after the capybara and beaver.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New World porcupine</span> Family of rodents

The New World porcupines, family Erethizontidae, are large arboreal rodents, distinguished by their spiny coverings from which they take their name. They inhabit forests and wooded regions across North America, and into northern South America. Although both the New World and Old World porcupine families belong to the Hystricognathi branch of the vast order Rodentia, they are quite different and are not closely related.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brazilian porcupine</span> Species of rodent

The Brazilian porcupine is a porcupine found in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, French Guiana, Peru, Paraguay, Suriname, Bolivia and Trinidad, with a single record from Ecuador. It inhabits tropical forests at elevations up to 1500 m.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bristle-spined rat</span> Species of rodent

The bristle-spined rat is an arboreal rodent from the Atlantic forest in eastern Brazil. Also known as the bristle-spined porcupine or thin-spined porcupine, it is the only member of the genus Chaetomys and the subfamily Chaetomyinae. It was officially described in 1818, but rarely sighted since, until December 1986, when two specimens - one a pregnant female - were found in the vicinity of Valencia in Bahia. Since then it has been recorded at several localities in eastern Brazil, from Sergipe to Espírito Santo, but it remains rare and threatened due to habitat loss, poaching and roadkills.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prehensile-tailed porcupine</span> Genus of rodents

The prehensile-tailed porcupines or coendous are found in Central and South America. Two other formerly recognized Neotropical tree porcupine genera, Echinoprocta and Sphiggurus, have been subsumed into Coendou, since Sphiggurus was shown by genetic studies to be polyphyletic, while Echinoprocta nested within Coendou.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paraguaian hairy dwarf porcupine</span> Species of rodent

The Paraguaian hairy dwarf porcupine is a porcupine species from the family Erethizontidae. It is found in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black-tailed hairy dwarf porcupine</span> Species of rodent

The black-tailed hairy dwarf porcupine is a porcupine species from the family Erethizontidae. It is found in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname and Venezuela.

The Bahia porcupine, is a New World porcupine species in the family Erethizontidae endemic to the Atlantic Forest of southeastern Brazil. It was formerly sometimes assigned to Sphiggurus, a genus no longer recognized since genetic studies showed it to be polyphyletic. Sphiggurus pallidus, formerly considered a separate species but known from two young specimens only, is a synonym of this species.

Roosmalen's dwarf porcupine is a porcupine species from the New World porcupine family likely endemic to northern Brazil. Only three specimens were known at the time, and only one had a collection locality. It is named for Marc van Roosmalen and his son Tomas, whose collections from the middle Madeira included the first known specimens. It was soon assigned to the genus Sphiggurus, although this genus was not recognized by the authors. Genetic studies in 2013 have since showed Sphiggurus to be polyphyletic. Nonetheless it is commonly classified as Sphiggurus roosmalenorum. Coendou roosmalenorum may be misspelled due to a conflicting basionym combination.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bicolored-spined porcupine</span> Species of rodent

The bicolored-spined porcupine is a species of nocturnal and arboreal rodent in the family Erethizontidae. It is found in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stump-tailed porcupine</span> Species of rodent

The stump-tailed porcupine is a species of rodent in the family Erethizontidae. It is found mainly in Colombia, with a few records from Ecuador.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brown hairy dwarf porcupine</span> Species of rodent

The brown hairy dwarf porcupine is a species of rodent in the family Erethizontidae. Found in the Andes in Colombia and Venezuela, its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. It is not easy to study as it is only known from a few specimens and wasn't recorded from 1925 until the 2000s. The porcupine is nocturnal and arboreal, feeding on leaves, shoots, and fruits. Habitat loss severely threatens it and it may even be extinct. Formerly listed as vulnerable, it is now designated data deficient. It is not known from any protected areas or conservation measures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Streaked dwarf porcupine</span> Species of rodent

The streaked dwarf porcupine is a porcupine species in the family Erethizontidae. It is known from the lowlands of eastern Ecuador, and may be present in Peru as well. It appears to be nocturnal and arboreal in its habits.

The frosted hairy dwarf porcupine is a porcupine species in the family Erethizontidae from Colombia and northern and eastern Venezuela. It was formerly sometimes assigned to Sphiggurus, a genus no longer recognized since genetic studies showed it to be polyphyletic. The species lives in lowland tropical rainforest and cloud forest at elevations from 50 to 2,600 meters. Its karyotype has 2n = 42 and FN = 76. Its closest relative is the brown hairy dwarf porcupine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andean porcupine</span> Species of rodent

The Andean porcupine or Quichua porcupine is a species of rodent in the family Erethizontidae. It is found in the Andes of northern Ecuador and Colombia as well as in Panama. This porcupine is little known, but is probably arboreal, nocturnal and solitary like its relatives. The species is thought to be uncommon to rare and the population decreasing. It is threatened by deforestation, habitat fragmentation and agriculture.

References

  1. Vázquez, E.; Reid, F.; Cuarón, A.D. (2016). "Coendou mexicanus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2016: e.T20629A22214103. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-2.RLTS.T20629A22214103.en . Retrieved 17 November 2021.
  2. 1 2 Woods, C.A.; Kilpatrick, C.W. (2005). "Infraorder Hystricognathi". In Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 1549. ISBN   978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC   62265494.
  3. Biodiversity and Environmental Resource Data System of Belize "Sphiggurus mexicanus specimen records" Archived 2014-03-05 at archive.today . Accessed on 5 March 2014.
  4. 1 2 Voss, R. S.; Hubbard, C.; Jansa, S. A. (February 2013). "Phylogenetic Relationships of New World Porcupines (Rodentia, Erethizontidae): Implications for Taxonomy, Morphological Evolution, and Biogeography" (PDF). American Museum Novitates (3769): 1–36. doi:10.1206/3769.2. S2CID   55426177.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Reid, Fiona (2009). A Field Guide to the Mammals of Central America and Southeast Mexico. OUP USA. pp. 244–245. ISBN   978-0-19-534322-9.